Available now:

Apollo 23 by Justin Richards

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Commissio ning ed itor: Albert DePetrillo

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To Robert

Sam Horwitz had never felt so excited. The Grand Hall of the Ne w

York Natural History Museum was packed with hundreds of

people, all clutching invitations to 'See the New Wonder of the

World'. In exactly two minutes, Sam was going to step out and

show them his amazing discovery.

Sam fidgeted with his new white blazer. He'd never worn

anything so bold before, but for this, the biggest day of his life,

he wanted to impress. He had worked alone throughout the

night to get the mysterious exhibit ready, and only he and the

Director of the Museum knew what was hidden behind the

thick velvet drapes.

Looking around the room, he felt dizzy with adrenalin. There

were massed rows of schoolchildren

7

DOCTOR WHO

and their grumpy teachers, bearded archaeologists, twitchy

photographers, and the great and good of New York. He

saw his friend Polly Vernon give him a little wave from the

middle of the crowd. Polly was a teacher at a New York

elementary school and had brought all of her class to cheer

him on. He smiled nervously as she mouthed an

encouraging 'good luck'. At the front, jostling for position, all

the major TV stations were preparing to broadcast the first

pictures live to the world. Sam knew they weren't going to

be disappointed.

The Director of the Museum finished her introduction and

called on Sam to take the stand. Sam took a deep breath.

Everything was about to change. He was about to become

famous.

He strode across the Grand Hall to loud applause and stood

blinking as camera lights flashed. The news crews signalled

to each other: they were going live. Sam knew this was his big

moment. All around the world, millions of people would be

watching. Sam felt happier than he'd ever been. Those long

weeks digging in the icy wastes of Svalbard had been worth

it.

Sam stepped up to the podium, trying hard not to fiddle

with his jacket buttons. He'd rehearsed this moment over and

over again: a short thank you, a joke to show to everyone he

was a down-to-earth kind of guy, then he'd pull the cord and

bask in their applause.

8

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

He reached the microphone, shuffled his papers and began

to speak. 'Thank you, everyone, for coming. Today our ideas of

the past are about to change for ever. We've had plenty of big

displays in this Museum, but I can promise you, this is our most

mammoth yet!'

Sam pulled the golden cord, and the velvet drapes dropped

aside to reveal the world's only Polar Woolly Mammoth. It was

one of the most majestic creatures ever to grace the Grand Hall.

Standing four metres tall, the mammoth looked wild, with

rippling white fur and long tusks. Yet it was also strangely

graceful, like a thoroughbred horse, ready to spring from the

traps.

Sam knew that no one could fail to be impressed by its

grandeur and size. It was as if the forces of evolution had

sought to create in the Polar Woolly Mammoth the largest and

most beautiful creature ever. But there were no gasps of awe -

the crowd had fallen silent. They were stunned and shocked,

not delighted. Something was wrong. Sam started to feel sick in

his stomach, like the day before a big exam. He turned to follow

the anxious gaze of his audience.

The Polar Woolly Mammoth had been extinct for 10,000 years,

and the body of this one had been lying under the ice cap for

almost all that time. It now stood at the centre of the New York

Natural History Museum, in a beautiful recreation of its original

9

DOCTOR WH O

habitat. So Sam was as surprised as everyone else to see

four fresh mammoth poos splatting onto the floor.

Plop. Plop. Plop. Plop.

One of the schoolchildren started to giggle, and a wave of

laughter spread across the hall. Polly's class of kids were

clapping with delight, loving the joke that they thought was

being played on them.

The Director of the Museum turned to Sam with a face like

thunder. 'Is this your idea of a practical joke?'

'N-no!' Sam stuttered. He was as surprised as everyone

else. The mammoth was dead. He'd found it buried under a

hundred metres of solid ice. It was so dead no one could even

remember a time it had existed.

Then the mammoth let out an enormous roar, and the hall

erupted into chaos and screams and scuffling feet. The largest

mammoth ever discovered had come back to life. All around

the Grand Hall, people were leaping from their seats and

running to the back of the hall. The giggles had turned into

tears. This was very real, very scary and very wrong. Sam

could see the news crews broadcasting the pandemonium,

jabbering excitedly as the cameras swung between the

slowly waking mammoth and the stampede of people in the

hall behind them.

Sam started to speak into the microphone. 'Please stay

calm. This, er, isn't unusual - this room is very

10

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

hot, and the mammoth has been frozen for quite some time...

We can put this down to environmental factors... gas being

released... er... It's nothing to worry about at all...'

Nobody was listening. As the world watched live on

television, the only known Polar Woolly Mammoth ripped its

feet from the podium. Very much alive, and very annoyed at

being tied down.

Clearly panicking that it was going to break out and run riot

on the streets of New York, the Director of the Museum yelled,

'Close the doors!' Black-clad security guards slammed the

heavy wooden doors of the New York Museum shut, large iron

bolts barring the only way out of the building.

Stepping closer to Sam, the Director of the Museum

whispered furiously in his ear: 'Find a way to stop this. And do it

now!' She marched away.

Polly appeared at Sam's side and fixed him with big trusting

eyes. 'What should I do?'

Sam couldn't bear the look on her face. He had asked her to

bring her students here, and now he'd let loose a prehistoric

animal on them.

Behind him, the mammoth was stretching its enormous

jaws, its long tusks scraping the floor of the Museum. It had been

asleep for a long, long time. And now it was awake, and it was

very, very angry. Its plate-sized eyes fixed on Sam, and it

started to advance towards him.

Sam wanted desperately to stay calm. He wished

11

DOCTOR WHO

he could find something reassuring to say. Instead, as the

mammoth's heavy feet began to pound on the wooden floor, he

turned to Polly and yelled, 'Run! Whatever it takes, get everyone

out of here!'

12

Chapter

1

'New York, New York! Or is it New, New, New, New, New, New, New

York?' The Doctor was turning in circles, rattling off words at a

bewildering speed.

Amy looked at the Doctor as if he was mad. 'Hey,

elbow-patches - look at the clock!'

Sure enough, right above them in Times Square, the date was

beaming down for all to see.

The Doctor smiled. 'I got it right this time! Finally - 2010. Have

I impressed you yet?'

Amy reckoned she had a pretty good line in rash and

unpremeditated, but she'd found a real rival in the Doctor. She

wasn't about to let him know it, though. 'Why New York? I

thought we were going to the Moons of Poosh, or the Sapphire

Beaches of Padparashan 2? I'm not missing X-Factor so much I

13

DOCTOR WHO

need to stop by in 2010 and play catch-up.'

'Look around you, Amy. Isn't it glorious? Just smell the

air! On second thoughts, forget the air, just look up.'

Above them, skyscrapers of all sorts and shapes thrust up

into the sky, as if the city had been in far too much of a hurry

to plan what it was doing. It had wanted to reach the top, and

had done anything to get there.

The sun was almost blotted out by the buildings all around

them, and it felt to Amy as if they were walking in a deep

valley, thronging with noisy, busy, excited, people.

Everywhere she looked was a blaze of colour: yellow cabs

beeping angrily, tourists posing for pictures, and lights

blazing out of every display. Amy had never seen so many

people in one place, or so much going on at one time. She

was a long way from Leadworth and Mrs Poggitt whinging

about her bad hip.

New York was all Amy had imagined and more. But Amy

was used to getting people to do exactly what she wanted,

whenever she wanted, and she didn't want the Doctor to

think he could get away with bossing her around all over the

universe, and springing surprises on her, even if they were

nice ones. Part of Amy loved that the Doctor was a law unto

himself. But the other part of Amy Pond saw a challenge. She

knew he was harder to twist around her fingers than the other

men in her life, but she

14

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

wasn't about to give in to his bossiness just yet.

'So gimme, psychic paper, over here,' she told him. 'Two

hours is all I need. I'm going to find out how much shopping

we can fit into that TARDIS of yours.'

The Doctor moved in front of the police box doors, as if

he was protecting them from her. 'I show you the wonders of

time and space, and you want to buy them?' he asked,

appalled.

Amy laughed. 'As if I'd be so boring! Whatever you want

to do, for say, ten minutes, then my turn? Sound good to you?'

The Doctor didn't answer. His attention had been grabbed

by the sights and sounds of Times Square.

Amy tried again to break in on his thoughts. 'So what have

you got for me this time? Do you need us to sort out some

Mafia deal? Problems with a gang of cowboys? Or a Wall

Street billionaire that's really an alien? Actually, forget the

others - let's focus on the Wall Street billionaire.'

The Doctor's thoughts were racing ahead. 'New York. It's

the sort of place that things happen, always worth checking up

on New York, make sure no one's flying around in gravity

bubbles a few years early. I like to keep track of it, especially

now I'm looking all fresh and new. And don't look at my bow

tie like that, Pond. Bow ties are cool. Anyway, always good to

make sure there's no cracks in it.'

While Amy tried to work out if it was cracks

15

DOCTOR WHO

in New York or cracks in his bow ties that were worrying

him, the Doctor flicked his gaze from the city to his sonic

screwdriver, which was flashing a light he'd never seen

before. Excited, he turned his attention to Amy. 'Just look at

that! Now, this is very important. There's a museum in the

175th century I need to show you, but the canteen is rubbish:

they only eat boiled Jericoacoara beans. Don't ask me why;

it's a religious thing. Anyway, you deserve the best the

universe has to offer - and it's here!'

He held his sonic screwdriver up to Amy, so she could see

the row of flashing lights.

'Do I look like a dolphin?' Amy demanded. 'What does that

mean for those of us that can't decipher sonic technology?'

The Doctor grinned. 'It means I was right!' He spun on the

spot, scanning Times Square with the sonic screwdriver.

'There's a place I've always wanted to go, dreamed of it,

hoped for it, but I've been constantly disappointed, always

losing track. I've leapt through constellations and danced

around black holes just to get the name of this place. And it's

been here all along! Don't you just love New York? You

never know what you're going to find!'

Amy held up her hand. 'Whoa there! What are you talking

about?'

'I've just picked up a very special signal,' the Doctor

explained. He twirled his sonic screwdriver in his hand. 'And

what it confirms is that there's

16

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

a restaurant here that will one day be the most famous in all of

the galaxy. In the 208th century, people are so obsessed with

it they travel back through time from all over the galaxy to eat

there. Well, I say people... Anything with less than four

stomachs travels to eat here at least once a lifetime. It's

renowned as the best meal you will ever have. Will have had.

Had ever having. Sorry, time travel tenses, they're very

confusing. Just stick with me. This is the most famous food in

the galaxy and people spend a lifetime of savings to make the

trip. And we've landed in the perfect vintage. The Ood Food

Guide gave June 2010 a whole solar system of awards. Good

old TARDIS!'

The Doctor patted the side of the police box and clicked his

fingers. With barely a whirr, the TARDIS faded from sight.

The Doctor saw Amy's expression and quickly reassured

her. 'I've just left it a few seconds ahead of us. I'll get it back

when it's time to leave. No point confusing people.'

Amy couldn't help but be caught up in the Doctor's

enthusiasm. 'So is this what we do then? Sometimes we save

the world; other times we're like space tourists.'

'Yep. But we're the best sort. We don't, you know, stay up all

night and go starting fights. Actually, who am I kidding, we're

the worst sort...' Marching off, the Doctor led Amy into a busy

side street. 'And just

17

DOCTOR WHO

look at the queue. Barely a human amongst them.'

Sure enough, the anonymous alley was packed with very

strangely shaped people.

'Are they really aliens? In the middle of New York?' Amy

asked. 'They just look sort o f . . . American to me.'

The Doctor nodded. 'It's not a problem, they're very well

behaved. Not like the French. Look, no pushing at all.' As they

walked along the queue, he started pointing out individuals.

'Now, the one in the trench coat is a Judoon. The one that looks

like three people standing on top of each other is a Graske. The

girl in the shades and the hairy chin? Cat person! Very naughty

coming here, but, hey -when the food is this good, you can't

blame her, can you?'

Amy joined in. 'My turn! Look, that hideous man there, kind

of horrible droopy face and weirdy eyes, that's got to be

something - maybe a mutant from Mars. Or you know, a giant

space slug or something?'

'Shh!' The Doctor leaned in close to Amy. "That's Kenny, nice

guy, works in the Post Office. Don't worry, I'm sure he gets

compared to aliens all the time!'

They followed the queue down the alley and turned into a

big open courtyard. The Doctor stopped. 'Smell that, Amy!'

The food smelt like crisp onions, frying chips

18

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

and sizzling meat.

'This is the holy grail of food! I never quite thought it would

happen, but now here we are!'

As the assorted people stood aside, Amy could see where

they were heading. She was expecting to see something like the

Ritz, all marble and glitz. Instead, the Doctor was heading for a

battered old trolley, where a weary-looking man was flipping

burgers behind a row of brightly coloured sauces. Pinned

behind him was a giant sign: 'Big Paulie's Sausages'.

Amy was confused. 'Why's it say sausages? He's selling

burgers!'

The Doctor was too excited to answer. 'Oh, isn't this just

brilliant! Look at everyone here! All so happy.'

He pointed at a large table of what looked like seagulls in

duffel coats. 'Where they come from, they've been at war for

five hundred years, but they're barely waving a fork at each

other here. If one thing is going to save the universe, it's one of

Big Paulie's Sausage-Burgers.'

Sitting on tables laid out on the sidewalk, the disguised

aliens sighed with pleasure as they tasted the famous burgers. At

one table, a family of Haemo-Goths spat into the air as a sign of

their appreciation, long tongues flickering in and out.

"They have a restaurant in the Luxury Zone of the Ruby

Solar System where they cook everything

19

DOCTOR WHO

in liquid nitrogen. When you put it in your mouth it foams

right up inside your nose. Smells delicious. Tastes a bit like

bogies. But never mind that. This is all about The Burgers! Do

you ever get that feeling where you'd do anything for a

burger? And right here, right now is the very best place in

history to get a burger. Of course there's a twelve-year waiting

list, just to eat one. But I have come prepared.'

Amy looked at the Doctor, unimpressed. 'You rang

ahead?'

The Doctor shook his head. 'Nope. You'll like this. I've

bought the street. In your name! As the owner, you get free

burgers for life. I recommend the Doctor Burger. It's like a

cheeseburger but with extra bacon, sausage and steak. And a

bit of chicken, I think. No ketchup though. Absolutely

banned. Yucky stuff.'

Amy thought this was a good time to assert herself. 'OK,

Doctor. But after this, we go shopping, yeah? No running off,

no flirting with 500-year-olds.'

I was just being friendly!'

'And this time, if we find a hot man in uniform, he's

coming with us. That's not a problem, is it?'

Straightening his bow tie, the Doctor turned to Amy and

opened his mouth to reply. Then something grabbed his

attention. 'Oooh, that's interesting...' He gazed over Amy's

shoulder into the distance.

Amy waved a hand in front of his face. 'Hey!

20

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

Don't drift off, just when you're about to agree with me!'

The Doctor was suddenly serious. 'Amy, everyone in Times

Square has just stopped. Do you know how often that happens?

That never happens...'

Looking around them, Amy could see the humans in the

queue answering their phones, and all turning to look up the

alley.

The Doctor grabbed Amy's hand and ran back up the

alleyway into an almost silent Times Square.

I bet you weren't so grumpy when you were here before.'

A thought crossed Amy's mind. 'Did you come here with

another girl?'

The Doctor smiled. 'Don't look at me like that, Pond.

You've been on other dates; I've been to other New Yorks. And

this isn't a date, before you ask, and neither was the other time,

sorry, times, and I choose to look at it, at like - Oooh! What is

happening up there?'

On the massive digital screen above them, a headline

scrolled in bold red capitals: CHAOS AT THE MUSEUM.

On every screen in Times Square, the same three-second

burst of action was playing over and over again: a frenzied

white mammoth leaping off a stand, turning its head and

roaring at a terrified and cowering man in a bright white

jacket.

All around them, people were staring open-mouthed at the

screens.

The Doctor was smiling, struggling to hide his

21

DOCTOR WHO

excitement. 'Now that is more like it! The burgers can wait!'

'That poor man!' Amy cried. 'Look how scared he looks.'

Up on the screens, live CCTV camera footage showed that

the Museum had emptied of people, but one man remained. It

was the man in the distinctive white blazer, and he was vainly

trying to hook a velvet rope around the mammoth's leg.

'That's either very brave or very stupid,' the Doctor

remarked. 'And it'll never work. We'd better get a move on.' He

took Amy's hand and led her across the road.

'How do you know the way?' Amy asked as they started to

run up Broadway.

'In an emergency, always head for the helicopters...' the

Doctor told her with a smile.

Sure enough, several helicopters were passing overhead,

news crews and armed police all heading for the New York

Natural History Museum.

The Doctor gazed up at them. 'Think we can thumb a lift?'

Amy shot her arm out in front of a yellow cab and yelled,

'TAXI!'

The car screeched to a halt, and Amy opened the door. "Thank

you. Very important business. My man has my credentials.'

The Doctor stood dumbstruck.

'Come on, dumbo.' Amy waggled her fingers.

22

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

'The papers...'

The Doctor twigged, and passed her the psychic paper.

She waved it at the driver, who jumped out of his car,

saluted clumsily, and held the door as Amy got in.

'I've always wanted to do that,’ Amy murmured happily

as the Doctor clambered in beside her. 'Looks pretty happy

to be helping the Empress of Scotland, doesn't he.'

'What does that make me?' the Doctor asked.

Amy smiled. 'You're my bag carrier, of course.'

Sam's day was still going very, very badly. After the

screaming crowds had fled, he had stayed behind just long

enough for the heavy doors to be sealed again. Now he was

alone with a prehistoric animal, and he was feeling very

scared. He had hidden himself in the cloakroom, and was

peering out from behind a row of Puffa jackets, watching

the mammoth pacing the Museum's Grand Hall.

As it moved in slow circles around the room, the

mammoth growled in frustration at each locked door. It was

looking for a way out, Sam realised, wondering what it

would do if it stayed trapped for much longer. Frustrated by

its captivity, the creature had already smashed the reception

desk with a casual flick of its leg, and then set about

destroying the priceless Barosaurus skeleton with sharp

stabs of its tusks.

23

DOCTOR WHO

Sam felt responsible. He had spent months of his life

tending to the mammoth, and he knew every inch of its furry

body. He was aware of an unnerving instinct telling him this

was a faithful pet that would recognise him and do as he said.

But the more the mammoth roared and stamped on its

surroundings, the less Sam believed he could have an

influence on the savage beast.

Nothing he had learnt about biology had prepared him for

this. Sam couldn't get over how impossible it all was. The

mammoth had been frozen for thousands and thousands of

years. There was no way it could have come back to life.

He tried telling himself that the mammoth was probably

as scared of him as he was of it, and that it didn't want to harm

anyone... All he had to do was give it what it wanted, and it

would calm down. But a sinking feeling told him that what

the mammoth wanted was feeding, and at the moment Sam

was the only food in the room.

There was something else, too - some nagging detail. Sam

was sure that when the creature had first roared, he'd heard a

strange high-pitched noise, like the precise clicking of a

thousand tiny cogs. He was the only person close enough to

hear it but, to Sam, it had almost seemed as if someone,

somewhere was laughing...

24

Chapter

2

As their cab zoomed past Central Park, Amy quizzed the

Doctor. 'What's the diagnosis, then? Is this an alien cloaking

itself as a mammoth to hide its true evil features? Or maybe

some evil life force has possessed an innocent mammoth and

brought it back to life?'

The Doctor looked stern. 'If we're lucky...'

'What does that mean?' Amy asked. 'If we're lucky...'

The Doctor didn't answer. Something was clearly troubling

him.

Amy pressed him harder. 'We're here to protect it, right?

Stop any trigger-happy cop killing the poor thing.' She

punched the Doctor lightly on the arm. 'Oi! I'm talking to you

here!'

25

DOCTOR WHO

The Doctor turned to Amy. 'I've travelled light years to

see new species before, and there's something wrong with this...

Why is this white mammoth even alive? I mean, whoever

heard of a white mammoth, anyway? And why is it here

now?'

They reached the corner of Central Park West and 79th

Street and leapt out into a scrum of gawpers and onlookers.

As he pulled away, the cab driver yelled, 'I'm honoured,

your Majesty.’ and Amy gave a regal wave of her hand.

In front of the Doctor and Amy, heavily armed police

were gathering around a mobile command centre, while

NYPD cops put up barriers in front of the Museum entrance.

Amy paused to survey the crowd in front of them, but the

Doctor headed straight off into the crowds. Amy caught up

with him as he arrived at the police barrier and, with a huge

grin on his face, introduced himself.

'Hello, I'm the Doctor. I hear you've got a bit of pest

problem... Papers, Pond, papers.'

Amy flashed the Doctor's psychic paper, and the police

officer saluted. 'Good to see you, sir! Been a while since we

needed the Official City Animal Wrangler. Didn't actually

know we still had one.'

The Doctor smiled. 'Protecting the city with a smile since

1861. Now, at ease, can we get all these barriers taken down,

please? A bit of space for my

26

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

work and I'll have this under control in no time.' He nodded at

Amy. 'Along with my friend, the Assistant Official City

Animal Wrangler.'

The officer looked troubled. 'There's been orders from the

top, sir. No way can we interfere with their jurisdiction.' He

leant in close to the Doctor and whispered. "The Men in

Black are on their way. Commander Strebbins has taken

charge until they get here.'

Amy turned to where the officer was pointing, and saw a

serious-looking woman in an all-black suit pacing

purposefully near a mobile base of operations. She was

giving stern orders to a young officer, who relayed them into

his walkie-talkie. The woman seemed to reach a decision,

gesturing with a raised hand. As one, the armed police

marksmen fanned out across the entrance and took up

position, aiming their guns at the Museum door.

The Doctor was not happy. 'No, no, no, no, this is all

wrong...'

Next to Amy, a news reporter started speaking direct to

camera. Amy could make out the words 'armed response

unit... compassionate killing... minimise risk to civilians...'

'Trinity Wells will be here soon,' the Doctor suddenly

announced, and Amy watched a big grin light up his face.

'She one of your old flames?' she asked, intrigued.

27

DOCTOR WHO

The Doctor smiled. 'Never met her, actually.'

On cue, the AMN news helicopter appeared overhead as

the Doctor continued. 'The thing is, people think I'm bad

news, but every time I see Trinity on the telly, I know the

world's in terrible danger.'

More armoured vans pulled up in front of the Museum,

and heavily protected police came piling out, bulky with

bulletproof suits and helmets. Commander Strebbins waved

them into position and, to her horror, Amy saw an officer

pull a bazooka out of a case. Amy was sure she caught the

command 'lock and load'.

The Doctor took Amy's mobile out of her pocket and

zapped it with his sonic screwdriver. There was a burst of

static and they instantly heard the police radio signals.

'-o Nine, in position -1 have eyeball on the west door -

awaiting orders - confirm live ammunition -no casualties

recorded - tear gas on standby - will enter on confirmation

of news media blackout -Zero Nine, over and out.'

Around them, the crowd had grown quieter in

expectation of an unhappy ending. The onlookers could

sense this was going to be brutal. Amy was sure she could

hear a child crying somewhere nearby. She felt as glum as

the Doctor. Something as incredible as a mammoth had come

to New York, and the police were preparing to kill it. She

couldn't

28

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

believe how people could become so cruel just because they'd

met something they were scared of.

Amy turned to the Doctor, upset. 'This is terrible, Doctor.

What are we going to do?'

The Doctor looked worried. 'We can't let it be killed, who

knows what will happen... Maybe I could use what they have to

help... The thing is, Amy, we need to get to it before anyone

does anything stupid... Amy? Amy!'

But Amy wasn't waiting. It was time for action. She walked

straight up to the mobile command centre and accosted the

nearest police officer, practically grabbing him by his lapels.

By the time the Doctor caught up, she was in full flow: 'Right

then, Detective Pond here, courtesy of the TARDIS Division of

New Scotland Yard, Scottish branch.... You've been told we

were coming. No?'

The cop was shaking his head. Amy stepped even closer to

him, standing at her full height.

'What's your name?' she demanded.

'Officer Henderson.'

'First name?'

'Oscar.’ the young officer replied, surprised.

'Right then, Oscar, I'm Amy. I just wanted to ask, has the

creature inside killed anyone?'

Oscar seemed to relax slightly. 'No, ma'am, and if you could

step back I'd be much obliged. This is a controlled situation.'

Amy wasn't backing down. 'Has it harmed

29

DOCTOR WHO

anyone in any way?'

Again, Oscar shook his head. 'No. But we believe that we

should take preventative measures against any threat.'

Amy leant forward, bringing her mouth right up to his

ear. Then she yelled, 'SO WHY ARE YOU GOING TO KILL

IT?'

Oscar stumbled back, stunned by her ferocity.

The Doctor sprang to the rescue. 'If I can just borrow my

friend back, thank you...' As they walked away, he

whispered, 'I think there might be an easier way of doing

this. Can I borrow your phone again?'

The Doctor rubbed Amy's phone up and down on his

jacket like it was a cricket ball and hit it a few times with his

sonic screwdriver. 'This should work.’ he mumbled and

pressed 'Call'.

Moments later, the Doctor was speaking with quiet

authority, the big grin back on his face. 'Commander

Strebbins, would you know what I meant if I gave you a code

X231 hyphen 19 ten?'

There was a momentary silence, punctuated with urgent

bursts of static and whispered conversation. Amy glanced

over towards Strebbins, who was obviously confused that

anyone could radio straight to her. The Doctor seemed to have

turned the phone into a police walkie-talkie.

'Let me guess what you're saying.' Amy's attention snapped

back to the Doctor, who'd obviously lost

30

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

patience waiting for Strebbins's answer. 'There'll be no record

of the mission allowed, no one in the NYPD or the FBI will be

accountable, and you'll have to put your guns downs. No one's

going to like it, but you're gonna do it. The short version is: I'm

the Doctor - lemme in!' He grinned as he handed the phone

back to Amy. 'I love a good code X231 hyphen 19 ten!'

Amy could see the furious Commander Strebbins approaching

them. She looked to be in her fifties, and was probably

hardened by numerous hours on the street. She was also

obviously not used to being told what she could and couldn't do.

The Doctor turned to greet her. 'Hello, I'm the Doctor. You

might have heard about me?'

'Colonel Mace was vague on that matter,' Strebbins growled.

'But he seemed to think I'd have no problem letting you take

command of this scene. Told me you were worth ten thousand of

my men.'

'Old friend,' the Doctor murmured to Amy. 'Always nice to

have someone put in a word...'

Commander Strebbins evidently didn't like being kept

waiting. She broke in brusquely: 'I'm trained for this situation,

Doctor, and we need to go in with maximum force. I have the

capacity to take out a creature twenty times the size of that

beast. I've got smoke grenades, stun guns, smart explosives,

and enough firepower to reduce however many elephants you've

got in there to cat food.' She smiled,

31

DOCTOR WHO

obviously assuming the matter was closed.

Commander Strebbins had underestimated the Doctor.

'Ah, well that's where there's a problem. Because, no one is

going to hurt that creature while I'm here.'

'Damn it, there are people in there, Doctor!' Strebbins

more or less shouted. 'I will protect them, whatever the cost.'

'Like shouting at him will make him change his mind,'

Amy thought wryly, as the Doctor pulled a tiny pair of

binoculars out of his pocket and started gazing towards the

Grand Hall of the Museum.

'There's no one in the windows.’ he told them, 'which

means everyone got out of the place before the mammoth

woke up properly. If I'm right, you'll have sealed the doors of

the Grand Hall, so it's not going to have gone far. Pretty

grand doors in there, if I remember.'

Strebbins gaped, but the Doctor hadn't finished.

'And you're forgetting just how clever and brilliant

those people in there are. If they're as good as I think,

they'll have run to the top floor, only sensible thing to do

when a prehistoric animal comes back to life...' His

binoculars shifted up, where he saw a group of

schoolchildren waving. 'There they are! Safe on the top

floor, probably looking at the crustacean exhibit, lovely

seahorses... So, Commander, you were saying?'

32

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

Commander Strebbins stared back at the Doctor for several

seconds. I’ll give you thirty minutes. If you get in trouble in

there, you're on your own.'

Three minutes later, the Doctor was ready to enter the

Museum. Strebbins had reluctantly ordered her marksmen to

crawl back from the steps, the armoured trucks had been

withdrawn, and the Doctor had given out instructions on how to

safely trap a mammoth. Under his keen eye, officers were busily

scattering hay over a flatbed truck, and loading up tranquilliser

darts.

'This is only a precaution,' the Doctor told them cheerfully.

'We'll lead it out. Probably. My friend here is an expert on wild

animals.'

The Doctor nodded at Amy. From the way the police

officers looked her up and down, Amy guessed she wasn't their

idea of a zoologist. She nodded back, trying to radiate a

convincing air of professional beast-tamer.

The Doctor turned back to the men and told them exactly

when they should open the doors, and what to have ready for

when the mammoth emerged.

'Is this going to be like Time Lord horse whispering?' asked

Amy. 'Are you going to talk to it in its own special language?'

The Doctor shook his head. 'Nah, nothing like that. But

tusks and guns - not a good mix.'

Amy nodded her agreement. 'Let's go get our mammoth!'

33

DOCTOR WHO

Together, they bounded through the police cordon and up

the steps of the Museum. Above the enormous doors were

carved three words: Truth', 'Knowledge' and 'Vision'.

The Doctor nudged Amy. 'Also, Mammoths.'

Amy looked up. 'I think I recognise this place from Grand

Theft Auto.'

As they reached the doors, two armed police officers clad

in black pulled the doors back, straining with effort. The

Doctor and Amy stepped through, and the doors closed again

with a massive clang.

'Plus - when you're going in to face an impossible creature

it's best to be absolutely defenceless,' the Doctor remarked

conversationally, as if it were an obvious point. "That way

we won't be lulled into a false sense of security.'

"Thought you had a plan?' said Amy. 'You told that lot it

would be over in minutes.'

The Doctor grinned at Amy. 'I might have exaggerated

the plan part a bit. But don't worry. This is what makes things

fun!'

34

Chapter

3

'Whoa...' the Doctor breathed. 'This is not looking good.'

In front of them, the entrance hall of the Natural History

Museum had been trashed beyond recognition. The once

spotless polar habitat display was smashed, and its cubes of

fake snow were scattered across the marble floor. The neat

rows of red chairs had been knocked skewiff as the audience

fled, and the massive drapes lay in velvet tatters on the floor.

There was no sign of the audience, and heavy wooden and iron

doors had been shut all around the huge Grand Hall - locking

the miraculous mammoth inside.

Amy heard a heavy clang, and saw that the entrance doors

had been closed behind them. They were locked in with a

prehistoric monster.

35

DOCTOR WHO

Amy was impressed by the scale of the damage. 'Where is it,

then? How can it hide?'

The Doctor scanned the room with his sonic screwdriver.

'Never mind that. Lots of places to go in this Museum... Come

on, this way.' He was heading for the edge of the room.

'How do you track a mammoth, anyway?' Amy asked. 'I

thought you'd be on your knees using your Time Lord tracker

senses or something, listening for mammothy sounds?'

The Doctor was thinking out loud. 'Why would it do this?

How could it come back to life? We need to work out the precise

order of events, but that's impossible.'

While he was talking, Amy picked up a camera that had

been abandoned in the struggle to escape.

'Hey, Time Boy, have a look at this!'

Amy scrolled through the pictures, past grinning shots of a

young teacher at a school party, until she reached the unveiling

of the mammoth. The first picture showed the hall packed.

Some of the same children that had been at the party were

grinning brightly. In the second, the man in the white blazer

was making a speech.

The next three pictures were of the floor. The final shot

made Amy scream with delight. 'Look at this!'

The picture was a close-up of the mammoth's head, in all its

wonder. Its jaws were wide open, and

36

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

Amy could see row after row of sharp teeth, tusks curving a

cruel circle in the air.

The Doctor said nothing. Peeved, Amy looked around and

saw him clambering up one of the marble columns, pressing

his ear up against the stone. She hurried over.

The Doctor offered Amy his hand. 'Better come up here.'

Amy wasn't impressed. 'Why on earth would I do that?

Anyway, I've just found the exact order of events, just like you

wanted.'

The Doctor came straight back with: 'I've done better, I've

found the mammoth. Now get out of its way.'

Amy turned to follow the Doctor's gaze. But in front of her

the hall was empty. 'There's nothing there.’ she protested, 'so

will you get down from that post! We've got a mammoth to

find.'

'Did I not tell you I have very good hearing? Listen through

this.'

He leant down and held his screwdriver to Amy's ear. Out of

nowhere, a raucous pounding noise filled her ears. Heavy breaths

and grunts like nothing she'd ever heard before. It was the

panting and stomping of an enormous creature, smashing and

howling as it made its way through the Museum. Amplified by

the screwdriver, Amy could hear people screaming in horror.

An overlapping mix of voices: mums telling children to 'Get

back!' Men cursing under

37

DOCTOR WHO

their breaths, car horns beeping and mobile phones chattering

with the news: 'Oh no, it's coming!'

Amy was lost for words.

'It is a sonic screwdriver,' the Doctor explained.

Nervous now, Amy asked, 'How far away is it?'

The Doctor bent his head to one side. 'Not far. I'd say two

hundred metres. Or, actually twenty metres. Hard to tell with

these things.'

Just as he finished speaking, the glass front of the Museum

shop shattered. Glass shards sprayed over the floor, and a

huge display of plastic Triceratops exploded, flying through

the air. Charging out of the store, souvenir posters and

T-Rex T-shirts festooning its massive form, was the wild

and frothing mammoth.

The Doctor twiddled his screwdriver, puzzled. 'Glass

must have distorted it,' he muttered.

'Never mind that!' Amy yelled. 'It's heading right for me.

Pull me up!'

She grabbed the Doctor's hand, and he hauled her up the

column, sitting her on top of a window ledge, high above the

floor.

She smiled at him. 'Not bad. You're surprisingly strong for

a skinny bloke.'

The Doctor looked hurt. 'I am not skinny! I'm just you

know, not too show-offy about my strength.'

Below them, the mammoth was getting ever nearer,

veering from side to side, almost like it was unbalanced.

Amy watched it slowing slightly as it

38

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

reached the centre of the room. She'd never seen anything

quite like it.

Next to her, the Doctor was transfixed by the sight.

'Wowzers, that is beautiful!'

Amy shot the Doctor a critical look, mouthing 'wowzers'

at him with disdain.

'Yeah, sorry, I'm so not saying that again,' he said. 'Mind

you - wowzers. Might catch on...? No?'

Amy shook her head disapprovingly. 'Not likely.'

The Doctor wasn't put off though. 'You have to admit it is

beautiful. What a wondrous thing. And it might not even be

alien. Could be from your own planet. We could send it back

to its own time. Or maybe it'll be happy here. Find it a nice

elephant to share its life with—'

'What's it doing?' Amy interrupted. 'It doesn't look very

scared.'

From where they were, it almost looked like it was trying

to read the calendar in the mess of the gift shop. Amy

discounted that as ridiculous.

The Doctor motioned for her to keep quiet, then made a

complicated set of hand signals that left her baffled.

Are you trying to tell me that it'll follow our sounds?' she

whispered.

Instantly, the mammoth was on to them, raising its big

eyes to gaze at them perched on the window ledge.

39

DOCTOR WHO

The Doctor nodded, then realised there was no point being

quiet now. 'They can't see that well, all that hair in their eyes -

but just look at those ears!'

'How big do you think it is?'

'I'd say four metres high, probably weighs about ten tonnes,

need to eat a lot to keep up that kind of energy.' He noticed

Amy's reaction. 'I didn't mean to say the wrong thing about

eating. They don't eat humans, far as I know, not that I've met

one before, I'll just stop now, OK?'

Looking decidedly angry, and smashing a path through the

seats, the mammoth was heading straight for their vantage

point. Amy felt very exposed. They were in the centre of the

mammoth's path, high and dry, with no way of escape.

Acting tough in the face of danger, Amy went on. 'A little

beastie like that? You've fought off worse. In fact, I've fought

off meaner-looking things in Leadworth. If the caveman can

get rid of it, then surely we can?'

The Doctor looked straight at Amy Pond. He was half

proud of her and half scared. Amy was confident beyond her

abilities, ready to leap into any situation whatever it meant, and

full of absolute trust in him.

'You are brilliant, Amy Pond,' he said, 'but there's a thing. A

very important thing. A thing that's been troubling me for the last

five minutes. This mammoth has survived two ice ages, the Stone

Age, the Bronze

40

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

Age, the Iron Age, the nuclear age. So how has it managed that

when almost nothing else has? Maybe it's because it's the most

vicious mammoth in all of creation, so bloodthirsty it survived.

Or maybe it's because it's so wise and peaceful no one has ever

wanted to harm it, and it has been kept safe and protected for

thousands and thousands of years. Or, and I'm not making a

speech this long again, especially halfway up a marble column,

or - it's not a mammoth at all. Which leads me to think it's

drawing the attention of the world to it, so maybe it's just a

mistake? Or, or, or it could be a diversion and, while I'm here,

Washington is being turned into a spa town for insect creatures.

Either way, we need to stop it before anyone else does...'

'Sshhh!' Amy was calm and focused.

The mighty mammoth was almost directly below them now.

She could hear its every breath and pant. Something in it was

rumbling and growling, a noise so deep and so primal it would

have stilled the assault of any predator.

The Doctor continued regardless. 'Whatever it is, it's trapped

in a museum with five hundred innocent people, and we can't

allow it to reach them. We need to get it out the door, where your

new admirers can tranquillise—'

Amy interrupted him again. 'Before you do that, Doctor,

would you mind telling me why it's safer up here?'

41

DOCTOR WHO

The Doctor looked at Amy as if she was crackers. 'Safer?

It's not safer up here. We came up here to make it easier to

get onto it.'

Amy was filled with horror. 'Onto it? Are you mental? I

thought we were staying out of its way.'

The Doctor was calm and pragmatic. 'No, it would be far

safer down there, here we're on its level.'

Only metres away from them, the mammoth raised its

head, and its huge eyes looked right at them, its brutal tusks

almost touching their legs.

Why did doing what the Doctor said ever seem like a

good idea, Amy wondered. 'You know Doctor,' she said,

'I've never taken orders from a bloke before.'

The Doctor smiled. 'Ah, but then again, you never got to

do this!' With a yell of: 'Geronimo!' he swung Amy off the

window ledge, and the two of them landed straight on the

back of the mammoth.

42

Chapter

4

Digging his hands into the mammoth's thick white coat, the Doctor

leant over and yelled in Amy's ear, 'Hang on! It's going to be a

bumpy ride.'

Amy curled her fingers into the mammoth's hair and clung

on as the beast thundered around the Grand Hall of the

Museum.

'It's a bit like horse-riding,' the Doctor yelled.

'I've only been once, I broke my arm.’ she replied.

'Well let's hope you learned.’ the Doctor shouted back.

'Never went bullfighting, though.’ Amy yelled.

'Bullfighting?'

She pointed ahead, almost losing her balance. 'Looks like

that's what he's doing!'

43

DOCTOR WHO

In front of them, a man had stepped out into the hall. He

was wearing what had once been a strikingly white blazer,

which was now stained and torn. Amy recognised him from

the footage of the mammoth breaking loose.

The Doctor had obviously recognised the man too,

because he yelled in Amy's ear, 'Look, he's OK.'

Amy twisted round to see the man standing proud in the

middle of the hall.

'Oh no,' the Doctor continued. 'I think he's trying to knock

it out... with a wooden chair.'

The man was waving and shouting to attract the

mammoth's attention, and was hopelessly trying to hide a

chair behind his back.

'Oi, hairy!' the man yelled. Within seconds, the

mammoth had changed direction and was heading straight

for him.

'Get out of the way!' Amy cried, not quite able to believe

the man was even attempting this. She saw him take the chair

from behind his back and raise it above his head, all set to

smash it on the runaway creature.

Acting quickly, the Doctor aimed his sonic screwdriver

and directed a quick burst at the chair, which fell apart in the

man's hands.

'Why did you do that?' Amy asked.

'No point getting it any angrier.’ the Doctor replied.

44

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

Weaponless and surprised, the man turned to run, but the

mammoth now had a new target: the door to the rest of the

Museum. It headed at full pelt for the locked door.

'Duck!' the Doctor yelled.

In an explosion of splinters and broken wood panels, the

mammoth broke free of the Grand Hall and charged down a

marble corridor. It roared as it raced through the hall of the

Age

of

Man,

sending

the

skeleton

of

a

three-million-year-old woman clattering to the floor with a

thrust of its tusks. Then it slowed to gaze at the vast diorama of

Neanderthal man and a picture of a relatively small brown

mammoth.

The Doctor was looking around with interest. 'This is the

best way to see museums. It gets it over with so much

quicker!'

He had ended up sitting behind Amy on the beast's back

and was now hanging onto her waist as the white mammoth

skittered round the marble floors, his legs flailing out to one

side.

Amy shouted back, 'What you doing?'

The Doctor didn't answer - he was too busy trying to stop

himself slipping off. Amy reached back and grabbed him by

his braces, yanking him back up on top of the mammoth.

'Hah, I never thought I'd be thankful you're wearing those

braces,' she said. "Thought you'd be OK sitting on this with

those bandy legs of yours.'

45

DOCTOR WHO

The Doctor looked rattled. 'What do you mean?'

Amy grinned at him. 'Haven't you ever looked in a full-length

mirror? You could ride a horse between those!'

As the mammoth thundered along another corridor, the

Doctor leaned forward as far as he could, and aimed his sonic

screwdriver at the mammoth's ears.

'It's not working,' he yelled back to Amy. Hanging on with one

hand, he fiddled with the device and tried again.

'What's not working?'

'There's a thing you can do to some animals, makes them

relax, like stroking a dog, or turning a rabbit on its back.'

'And that was your plan, was it?'

If anything, the mammoth seemed to have become more

erratic, not less.

"Thing is,' the Doctor explained, 'it should work on a

mammoth. Something's not right.'

'What do you mean?' she asked.

The mammoth abruptly changed direction, and the Doctor

began to slip again. Amy had to yank him back on. She looked

back up to see that they were now heading full-pelt for a

massive whale skeleton.

The Doctor had seen it too. 'Got to be able to steer this thing. I

told Commander Strebbins we'd bring it out under control...'

46

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

Amy was flabbergasted. 'There is no way you can steer a

mammoth!'

The Doctor leant forward and put Amy's hands on the

neck of mammoth. It felt warm and powerful under her

hands. 'Just pull to the left and see what happens.'

'You are impossible!' Amy shouted. She'd imagined

travelling around New York in style, and here she was trying

to steer a prehistoric animal around the New York Natural

History Museum.

Amy gripped the animal tight and pulled the mammoth's

neck to the left with all of her might. The mammoth wailed

in outrage, and spun rapidly to the right. They smashed

through the blue whale's tail, sending bones flying through the

air.

Amy wasn't amused. 'I think it's trying to shake us off.'

Increasingly enraged by its unwanted passengers, the

mammoth was now heading for a replica cave. The top was

so low the mammoth was barely going to squeeze through

it...

'Can't you steer it away?' the Doctor asked.

7 am so going to get you back for this, thought Amy.

The Doctor yelled 'Duck!' and Amy flattened herself on

the animal's back as it galloped through the cave. They made

it through to the other side where the mammoth hurtled into a

display of penguins, toppling them like dominoes.

47

DOCTOR WHO

Amy blinked, her mind distracted, confused by something.

'Are there any Nile Penguins here?'

The Doctor stared at her like she was mad. "They don't exist,

Amy. That's a myth. What made you think of them?'

Amy wasn't sure. For a brief moment, it had felt like a

long-forgotten memory had burst urgently back into her life,

but it had departed just as quickly, and she had no idea why

she'd thought it was important. 'I just had such a weird feeling

of déjà vu.’ she said.

'That's just echoes of memories.’ the Doctor told her

cheerily. 'Reverberating down your timeline, nothing to

worry about. Unless it's déjà vu of you wetting yourself. You

haven't, have you?'

Amy laughed. The Doctor had an amazing ability to make the

scariest things feel fun, and the worst times become the best.

She wanted to hug him, but realised they were about to hit

another doorway.

Amy and the Doctor ducked down close to the mammoth's

fur again. When they sat back up, they were in the glorious light

of the Hall of Diamonds. Amy was dazzled. She'd never

imagined such enormous jewels existed.

'Maybe this is a robbery?' Amy yelled at the Doctor. 'A

very clever robbery...'

'I don't think so...' the Doctor replied.

He was still lying on the mammoth's back, and was listening

intently to something. He gestured for

48

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

Amy to bend down with him. 'Tell me if I'm wrong, but that

doesn't sound like an animal to me...'

Am y couldn't tell for sure but, through the fur and

warmth of the animal, she thought she could hear the

click-click-click of cogs turning.

The Doctor took his sonic screwdriver out and pointed it

at the mammoth's back leg. It whirred and the mammoth's

leg gave way with a FATOO M! Amy clung to the fur as, for a

second, it seemed like the creature was going to collapse.

With a mighty effort, the mammoth hauled its leg back up.

'That's interesting.' The Doctor was tapping at the

mammoth's back. 'This is real muscle and real fur, held on

in a real way.' He tugged a bit of white fur loose, and the

mammoth wailed. 'See, it really hurts.'

Amy rolled her eyes at him. 'Well, durrr.'

'But underneath this real animal.’ the Doctor continued,

'there's a metal skeleton...'

'So we can switch it off?'

The Doctor looked worried. If the mammoth had been

built, then this was going to get complicated... How could he

know what was going to hurt the beast? Like a little boy,

he desperately wanted to take it apart and see how it

worked, but he couldn't be sure how much was machine and

how much was animal.

With all four legs working again, the mammoth put on a

burst of speed and they crashed past a

49

DOCTOR WHO

giant canoe, arriving back where they'd started in the Great

Hall.

The doors had been hauled open, presumably so the

Doctor and Amy could lead the mammoth out as they had

promised. Seeing its chance to escape, the mammoth

bellowed with triumph and charged for freedom...

Bursting out into daylight, the mammoth paused. It was built

for arctic plains and vicious tussles with other bloodthirsty

animals, but outside everything was concrete and brick and

flashing lights. In that brief moment, the mammoth was hit

with a barrage of tranquilliser darts.

'Will the tranquillisers work on it?' Amy asked.

There was no reply, and she twisted round to look behind

her. The Doctor was sound asleep. He had been struck in the

leg by a dart and had flopped onto the mammoth's back.

'Wake up!' Amy screamed at him in frustration.

The mammoth was about to tumble over and they were still

on its back. Amy grabbed the Doctor and pulled him to one

side as the mammoth staggered and then collapsed on the

steps.

Surrounded by New Yorkers and live on TV, Amy stood

beside the sleeping body of the mammoth, the Doctor in her

arms - and heard a huge cheer. Smiling, Amy waved at the

crowds. They'd only stopped off for a burger, but they'd

managed to

50

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

catch a mammoth. She slid down off the back of the beast, and

several men clad in severe black clothes grabbed both of her

arms.

Officer Oscar Henderson stepped up to her, a grim look on

his face. He snapped a pair of cuffs around her wrists, and

motioned for her to 'zip it' when Amy opened her mouth to

complain.

'I think it's time you two came with us,' he said.

51

Chapter

5

Oscar Henderson had been working for Commander Strebbins for six

months, and he'd never seen her like this before. He guessed that

she was feeling out of her depth. He knew she had spent twenty

years in the Baltimore City Police, working her way up from

foot patrols on the roughest streets, to become Chief of the entire

district.

A new unit was being set up to deal with Serious Civil Unrest.

They needed a hard nut to run it, someone who wouldn't be

scared by whatever the city had to throw at her - and someone

who'd stay calm, whatever was happening. In the last two

years, Strebbins had coped with riots on the streets, striking

taxi drivers and bomb threats. But the mammoth was something

new, and Oscar could

53

DOCTOR WHO

see that Strebbins was absolutely fuming. She paced up and

down in front of her lieutenants, barking orders.

'I want every single person in the Museum interviewed.

I want names, I want backgrounds, I want witness

statements. If one of them so much as farts out of turn, send

them to me! And most of all, get me the Man in the White

Jacket!'

The other officers filed out of Strebbins's office, their

mission clear, but Oscar heard his name and stepped back

inside her office. Strebbins shut the door behind him,

conspiratorial.

'Now we're alone, I need to tell you something.'

Oscar sat down but, seeing that Strebbins stayed standing,

he awkwardly got to his feet again and stood in the centre

of the room while Strebbins paced her office.

'I'm going to tell you about the man with the silly hair

we let into the Museum. What I have to say must remain top

secret. I'm telling you as you're being assigned to deal with

him and his friend.'

Oscar couldn't tell whether this was going to be a good or

bad thing yet. 'She's called Amy Pond,' he confided. 'Scottish

police force.'

'She's nothing of the sort,' Strebbins snapped back. 'The

man is called the Doctor. The code he used to gain access

has been on record since 1932. The origins are vague, but

I'm instructed to step aside to the bearer of the code, and

allow them to

54

THE FORGOTTEN ARNY

pursue their actions. However harebrained those actions

might seem.'

Strebbins paused for a moment. This obviously wasn't the

kind of conversation she wanted to be having with a junior

officer. Oscar usually saw her barking direct orders at them

and going home to her dogs.

'That was actually in the wording of the command.’

Strebbins went on. 'However harebrained those actions might

seem. Now, I'm in charge of this city's response to major

threats. And I consider the intrusion of a mammoth to be one

of them. It was a mistake to let the man in the tweed jacket

into the Museum. I hold myself responsible, and I'm certainly

not going to repeat it. I give my authority to no one. So I need

a solution. Since this young man arrived in town, things have

started to go wrong. I can smell trouble, but this time I can't

stop it. Colonel Mace from UNIT is on his way here from

Vancouver, and I want this wrapped up before he gets here. I

start to need help in my own backyard, pretty soon we'll all be

shut down. I want you to stay on their case. Wherever the

Doctor goes, you go, whatever they do, I want you to be there

with them.'

Oscar smiled. This sounded like a promotion to him. He

couldn't wait to tell the rest of the boys that he was on the

personal instructions of the Commander.

'One thing, Henderson,' Strebbins continued. 'I

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DOCTOR WHO

can't have this being reported. You know how this place

works. It's all time sheets and duty logs and explaining

ourselves to a higher authority. I'm not having any of that.

You'll take the next few days as leave. If you want to ring

in, I'm giving you my personal cell phone number.' She

handed Oscar a blank card with a number written on it in

biro.

'Thank you, ma'am. This is a great honour.'

Strebbins cut him off. 'Can it, Oscar. You're doing this 'cos

you're the only guy here that the girl talked to. I need you to

get close in to them. So lose the grateful act.'

Oscar was smiling as he left the office. If taking care of

the two eccentrics was all he had to do, he was going to have

an easy time of it.

Strebbins was obviously more concerned than Oscar.

She punched a speed-dial button on her desk phone.

'This is Commander Strebbins. Status update on the

apprehended creature, please.'

Oscar could hear the reply through the speakerphone:

'It's out cold. We're clearing the dog pound for it. Until then,

it stays on the flatbed.'

'Forget the dog pound,' Strebbins ordered. This thing

needs proper protection. Take it to the zoo.'

'Are you sure?' queried the duty officer.

Strebbins's lower lip trembled with anger. 'If I hear you

haven't done it, you're fired.'

*

56

THE FORGOTTEN ARNY

Ever since the sleeping mammoth had been taken away by

the cops, Sam Horwitz had been hiding deep in the

basement of the Natural History Museum. He'd seen how

quickly the ginger girl had been handcuffed, and he had

slipped quietly back into the Museum in the hubbub. He

knew he'd have to face his fate sooner or later, but for now

he was trying to piece together the mystery of the mammoth.

Working furiously at his desk, he'd been going through every

scan and test he had run on the mammoth. It had been

improbable enough that the beast still had fur when he first

found it, let alone that it could breathe. He sighed, and put

his head in his hands.

This wasn't how the day had been meant to go. By now, he

thought, he should have been interviewed countless times on

television and radio, answering questions in as many

languages as the world spoke. He would have answered

humbly and calmly, explaining how he alone had found and

preserved the mammoth. Then, after an exhausting but

triumphant day, he would have asked Polly Vernon out to

dinner. Tired, but sparkling, she would have seen in him

what he saw in her, and all the months of working alone

would have been worth it.

Now, instead, his career was over. In the space of a few

minutes, he'd gone from being the rising star of

Palaeontology to the biggest booby in all of America. He'd

brought a living creature into the

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DOCTOR WHO

sacred heart of the Natural History Museum and let it loose

on hundreds of people. Priceless displays had been

destroyed, and the two strangers that had leapt upon its back

had almost been killed.

He couldn't stop remembering Polly's face asking him what

she should do. It was so obvious to him now that he should

have led her and her school to safety. That's what a hero

would have done. Instead, he'd told her to run, and tried to talk

to a mammoth. Some kind of hero he was.

But even through all of this, part of him couldn't get over

how incredible it all was. His dreams of seeing living

specimens of magnificent animals from the past had come

true. He'd never imagined he would know how it felt to have

the breath of a mammoth on his cheeks, or to quake in fear as

one stampeded along the corridor. Sam thought that this must

be how the cavemen had felt. He had seen new dangers in the

world, and emerged unscathed.

There was a timid knock on the door, and Sam's evening of

woe instantly got a whole lot better. Polly Vernon was at the

door, smiling brightly.

Is it safe to come in?' she asked.

Sam laughed, so relieved to see a good friend like Polly.

Even better, she was carrying boxes of Chinese takeaway.

'Thought I might find you here...' she went on. 'Maybe we

can just stay in tonight? Out of everyone's way.'

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THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

Sam couldn't help but give Polly an enormous hug. He'd

turned his cell phone off after the hundredth news crews

rang for the thousandth time. All demanding interviews and

statements. 'Was this a hoax?' 'Where was it found?' 'Who is

responsible?'

Sam had turned on the TV earlier - only to see himself

facing down a mammoth, and the Director of the Museum

talking sternly to camera about the internal investigation to

be launched, and saying plainly and pointedly that this was

the brainchild of one of their junior colleagues - Sam Horwitz.

'What are they saying out there?' Sam asked Polly.

She looked at the floor. 'Don't you worry about them,

they'll calm down. No one was hurt, that's the important

thing.'

'Except the Barosaurus,' Sam said glumly.

Polly nodded. 'Yes, but that's been dead for millions of

years, so no one counts it.'

Sam was so pleased Polly was there. But he had to ask her.

'Are you disappointed in me?' He could feel his eyes welling

up with tears and blinked them back.

Polly said nothing. She just opened her arms, and gave

him a big hug. 'It wasn't your fault,' she said eventually.

'Who could have known they were able to survive

hibernation like that?'

'I'm so sorry, Polly. I was so scared.'

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DOCTOR WHO

Polly was shaking her head. Today, you were the bravest

man I've ever seen. That thing is one crazy animal. It can

probably eat a Tyrannosaurus Rex before breakfast, and you

went toe to toe with it! You didn't even run. I was so proud of

you.'

'But it's all my fault,' Sam moaned.

'You tried to get everyone to be calm. There were five

hundred people in that room, and only one person thought of

saving everyone else. You.'

Sam felt the happiest he'd been in hours. Maybe it wasn't

going to be so bad. Even though he knew his time in the

Museum was over and he'd be lucky to get a job teaching

fourth graders, he was proud that he had friends like Polly.

'So, Mr Explorer,' Polly was saying, 'I think it's time you

told me where on Earth you found that monstrosity. I thought

you'd been eaten by moths or something you'd spent so much

time at work. Now I know you were keeping this secret. No

wonder I didn't see you for so long.'

Sam realised that the burden of the secret was lifted and he

no longer had to hide. For the first time in months he felt able

to tell Polly the truth.

When he'd first met Polly, Sam's life had been very different.

He'd been a lowly research assistant and, for all his jokes and

games, he had been learning to forget his dreams. As a boy,

Sam had always loved reading about prehistoric creatures

and imagining what the past was like. He dreamed of

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THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

seeing the days when Tyrannosaurus Rex ruled the world,

and when herds of Diplodocus grazed the vast plains. But

after months of boring work in the Museum he had thought

that he would never get to be an adventurer, or to blaze his

own trail through undiscovered mountains and dangerous

jungles.

But then, one day, while he was cataloguing reindeer

droppings, he had found a piece of paper tucked inside an old

map of Svalbard. It had claimed to be the location of a hidden

treasure of dinosaur bones, buried beneath hundreds of

metres of Arctic ice, high in the icy plains of Svalbard.

The notes on the edge of the map claimed that dinosaurs

had gathered around a volcanic spring to shelter from the last

ice age, only to be trapped when the ice sheets advanced.

Dinosaurs from all over the continent had gathered around

the oasis of warm water and, as the longest winter crept in,

the dinosaurs had been frozen deep down under the glaciers.

If the story was right, the dinosaurs would have been frozen so

quickly, and kept in conditions so cold, that they would be the

best preserved dinosaurs ever. And if the map was right,

there would be types of dinosaur in the hidden valley that no

one had ever seen before.

So when Sam had heard there was a spare place on an

Arctic mission he knew it was too good an opportunity to

miss. Whilst his colleagues were labelling whale bones in

Stockholm Museum, he

61

DOCTOR WHO

had set off with two huskies and a warm coat to search for

the mysterious Dinosaur Oasis and its treasures. They had

all thought he was mad.

But Sam had surprised them all when he'd returned to

Stockholm, his borrowed fishing boat weighed down with a

very unusual cargo. Sam Horwitz had found the first ever

Polar Woolly Mammoth.

Standing four metres tall, its tusks were two metres long,

and it's eyes the size of dinner plates. Its teeth were long and

still sharp, unblemished by the years in the cold, and its

muscles still rippled, preserved in all their might and glory.

The beast had a coat of pure white fur, and a mouth as wide

as a car. It was truly fearsome to behold. And Sam had found

it.

The mammoth had been shipped back to New York in

great secrecy. Sam hadn't told Polly because he knew she'd

have wanted to see it. And he knew if even a few people saw

it - even Polly - the secret would get out.

They'd been successful in keeping the mammoth under

wraps and, until this fateful day, hardly anyone had seen it.

Rumours had spread around the Museum of what Sam was

working on. People had speculated that he'd found the

'missing link' of the chain of Evolution, or that he'd found a

new kind of prehistoric human skeleton.

But now the creature had turned out to be

62

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

something entirely different. And Sam desperately wanted to

do something to put right what he had done.

63

Chapter

6

When Oscar arrived at the Midtown Police Station, he was

horrified to find most of the uniformed police were standing

outside drinking cups of takeaway coffee.

'What are you doing?' he asked, finding it hard to believe

they were all outside.

'We're on orders from Scotland Yard,' an older cop

answered. 'Girl with red hair, she was very insistent we wait

outside. Nice girl though, she bought us all these.' The cop

nodded to a big box of doughnuts, most of which had been

eaten.

Oscar cursed and ran to the main doors, only to find the

front desk was shut down and the police station locked.

'They can't lock me out of a police station!' he

65

DOCTOR WHO

yelled. But it seemed that they could.

Keeping an eye on the Doctor was going to be harder than

Oscar had imagined.

The Doctor woke up behind bars. He was lying on a metal bunk

in a New York Police Department cell.

On the wall beside him, someone had scratched what looked

like a tally of years. For a short moment, the Doctor panicked.

Had he been in the cell for that long? Where was Amy? Still

cloudy from the tranquilliser, he couldn't quite piece together

the last few hours.

A familiar voice broke his thoughts.

'Oi, Dozy of Alcatraz!'

The delicate sound of Amy Pond brought a smile to the

Doctor's face. She was standing at the cell door with a bored

expression.

'Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting for you?'

she went on. 'It's not like they have magazines in the waiting room

here. You missed the best bit: me, a box of doughnuts and twelve

skinny lattes, and the NYPD were mine for the taking. You

should have seen me, I was pretty impressive. Anyway, looks

like New York has taken a shine to the mammoth.'

She unfurled a copy of the New York Times and held it up to

the hatch so the Doctor could see the front page headline: 'New

York Welcomes Woolly the Mammoth'.

66

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

The Doctor sprang to his feet, instantly tense. 'Right,

we've got to get to it. Er... how long have I been here, then?'

'I was coming to that.. .'Amy told him. 'I thought you'd

have woken up earlier, being all Super-Human Time Lord and

all that...'

The Doctor counted the number of holes in his trousers.

'They hit me with six tranquilliser darts. Even two hearts

take a while to get rid of that kind of dose. I must have been

asleep for... No!'

With a sense of dread, the Doctor looked at the time. Six

hours. He'd been asleep for six hours. He rattled the door of

the cell. 'We have to get out of here!' Pulling himself up on

the window ledge he could see that the sun was setting. 'Oh

no, no, no, no, no.'

Amy told him to calm down. 'Woolly is safe in the zoo, all

behind bars. Job done. Us one, mammoths nil.'

The Doctor wasn't ready to celebrate. 'We must be too

late... We need to get to it...' He realised he wasn't making

much sense to Amy and launched into a passionate

explanation. 'I know what's wrong with the mammoth!

When I was on its back I could hear it, and beneath the

muscle and the sweat there was another noise. There was a

ticking, and a clanking of old machinery getting back into

action. The mammoth isn't real. It's a fake. A giant

mechanical creature, disguised to look like a vicious

67

DOCTOR WHO

prehistoric animal.'

Amy was quiet for a moment. 'I read somewhere that all

the dinosaurs and prehistoric animals were fakes—' she said.

The Doctor cut her off. 'Nah, I've been there. Lovely

caves, beautiful sunsets in those days. They were definitely

real. But this is something else, and more than that - it's

unprotected, and it's right in the middle of New York.'

'But who would make something like that?' Amy asked.

'I don't know.’ the Doctor answered impatiently, pacin g

the cell with frustration. 'But I need to find out. Unless the

cavemen got very clever without me noticing, something

from another planet or another time hid the mammoth under

the ice.' The Doctor gestured at Amy to hurry up. 'So come

on, Pond, can't you pick the lock with a hairpin, or something?

I need to get out of here!'

Amy smiled. 'I've got an easier way. C'mere, Brad.'

In the corridor outside the cell, a handsome clean-cut

police officer walked over to the door and winked at Amy.

'Not leaving already are you?'

Amy charmed him with ease. 'Me and my dozy friend are

off now. Your boss said he was OK to go as soon as he could

walk.'

Brad peered in at the Doctor, who was doing his best to

look harmless. 'He looks kind of weird to

68

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

me, but whatever floats your boat.'

With a smile, Amy whisked the electronic key tag off

Brad's belt and pressed it up against the door. With a loud

clunk, the door to the cell slid open, and the Doctor stepped

out. He promptly tripped over his boots.

Brad looked at him with visible disdain.

'Right, first shoelaces,' the Doctor decided. 'Then let's go!

We need to get to the mammoth. And fast.'

While the Doctor had been asleep, Amy had watched as the

massive mammoth was loaded onto a flatbed truck and

transported across town to the New York City Zoo.

'Right now,' Amy told the Doctor, 'the mammoth is

sleeping happily between the rhinos and the elephants.

They're going to get a surprise when it wakes up.'

The Doctor looked distressed. 'Oh, Amy, you should have

woken me up...'

Amy was disappointed. She'd done her very best without

the Doctor and had hoped he would have noticed more of

what she'd managed to do. 'Hang on, I stopped them carting

you off to the Gotham Asylum, or whatever they have here,

and I convinced them I was the only person fit to look after

you. Professor of Psychology at Oxford no less. And Special

Inspector with Scotland Yard, Flying Squad. So less of the

grumpy face.'

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DOCTOR WHO

The Doctor smiled sympathetically. 'You're right. Sorry.

You've been brilliant. But our days of working with the NYPD are

over, Professor Pond. Far better we do things our own way from

now on. The right way. Follow me. I'll show you how it's done.'

They found a rear exit and walked out of the station into a

backyard full of rubbish bins. Beyond the bins, squad cars and

riot vans were parked up, ready to take out on patrol for the

night shift.

The Doctor grinned at Amy. 'I've always wanted to drive one

of these!'

Amy held him back. 'We can't steal a police car!'

The Doctor wasn't deterred. 'First the clothes, now this.

Next you'll be telling me to take the TARDIS back to whoever I

borrowed it off.'

Amy wasn't convinced. 'I'm an honorary member of the

NYPD, anyway. Well, maybe.'

Leaping into the driver's seat, the Doctor soniced the ignition,

and the engine roared into life. 'Come on, Amy!'

Amy got into the squad car. 'I suppose it's nice to see one of

these from the front seat.'

Oscar ran round to the back of the station, just in time to see the

Doctor and Amy drive off. He resisted the urge to call in and get

the car pulled over. Strebbins had told him to do this quietly.

Instead, he called in to Brad that he was taking a car. After

signing four forms and a health disclaimer,

70

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

Oscar headed off after the Doctor and Amy.

It wasn't difficult to work out where they going. They

wanted the mammoth, and he knew exactly where to find

them.

71

Chapter

7

The sun was setting over New York. The Doctor left the squad car

parked on Fifth Avenue, and Amy took a moment to take in

the beauty and sheer scale of Central Park. Above her, ducks

circled lazily, and thousands of lights were being switched on

across the city, making the steel and glass towers glow against

the sky.

'Wow!' Amy was impressed. 'On the maps, the park looks

tiny. But you could fit all of Leadworth into it. Twice.'

The Doctor signalled for Amy to be quiet as they got within

sight of the Zoo. As the evening drew in, the Zoo was shutting

down for the night, and the main entrance was full of groups

of schoolchildren, filing out as the security guards closed up.

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DOCTOR WHO

'Where exactly is the Zoo?' the Doctor asked.

Before Amy could speak, he answered his own question.

'It's right in the middle of New York, isn't it...'

'Does that mean anything?' Amy asked.

'We're about to find out.'

They circled the Zoo fence until they reached the service

gates. Beyond the heavy steel doors, they could see the top of

the large animal enclosure, tantalisingly close.

'I can sonic the gates open,' the Doctor told Amy, 'but I'm

gonna need a diversion...'

He nodded towards the entrance. On either side of the

service gates, two security guards were sitting back in their

chairs, chatting and laughing.

Amy smiled and whispered to the Doctor, 'I've got a

really good idea. You stop here, I'll get them out of the way.'

The Doctor crouched on the ground as Amy crawled

across the road and ducked behind a bush. A moment later a

tiny pebble skittered along the tarmac and came to rest

beside the foot of the security guard. The man didn't notice

and kept on talking to the other guard.

Amy tried again, with a slightly larger stone. This time it

bounced up, and knocked against the guard's knee. But he

still didn't notice. The Doctor signalled to Amy that they

didn't have much time.

On her third attempt, Amy chucked a hefty stone.

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THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

It flew through the air, bounced off the ground, and whacked

the guard right on the forehead.

'Owww!' cried the guard. Putting his hand to his head he

fell back off his seat, crying in pain for a second time as he

landed heavily on the ground. Concerned, the other security

guard rushed over to his side.

Amy was sure she could see tears rolling down the

guard's cheek as he rubbed his sore head. She ran back to the

Doctor's side.

The Doctor asked, 'Was that your really good idea? I

thought maybe you'd cause a clever scene, or something, not

whack him on the head.'

Amy rolled her eyes. 'Enough with the criticism. Your turn

now.'

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at Amy, not impressed at

all.

'I'm sorry, all right,' she said. 'I panicked. You were

pressuring me. I didn't mean to make him cry.' She paused,

and added: 'Looks like they're off, though.'

Sure enough, both guards were heading off to get first

aid, one of them still visibly upset.

'Don't you dare stop asking me to do this stuff though,'

Amy continued. 'I'm good at this. Just you wait and see.'

As she spoke, Amy slipped in a large pile of elephant

dung. She glared up at the Doctor, who backed away

laughing.

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DOCTOR WHO

'I'm not saying anything.’ he told her. 'Look at me, not

saying anything. See me, absolutely not pointing at you and

laughing.'

Amy tried to ignore him. 'Hurry up. They're distracted,

aren't they? Come on. Sonic away. Get those locks open.

Let's go!'

While Amy cleaned herself up, the Doctor clicked the

screwdriver and, with a thunder crack, the doors of the Zoo

blew open with an enormous bang.

The Doctor grinned, looking stupidly pleased with

himself. I didn't know it could do that! Sonic energy excites

the hydrocarbons in the oil in the hinges, and - Boom! Instant

access. Just look at it.'

Amy was aghast. 'All of New York will have heard that!

What was the point of me distracting them?'

'You've been in Leadworth too long, Amy Pond. Big city

like this, they'll think it's someone celebrating New Year.

Always a New Year for someone...'

Inside the Zoo, the elephants were uneasy. Flappy the

Elephant (named by a children's TV programme) had been

perplexed when his usual afternoon visit had been

abandoned and men clad in black baseball hats had unloaded

a strange and new kind of animal.

Flappy had learnt to be glad whenever new animals

arrived, especially elephants. He'd been a bit lonely since

Elephunk the Musical Elephant had

76

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

gone to Philadelphia Zoo, and he wanted someone to talk

trunk to trunk with. But this new animal was different...

The zookeepers hadn't been pleased when it arrived.

There had been shouting and screaming and tones of voice

Flappy normally only heard if the goat's head butted a child.

And then when he had finally seen the creature unloaded,

he'd been deeply suspicious.

It wasn't the colour that seemed odd: in his short life,

Flappy had seen creatures of all kinds go past. It was the

smell. The new woolly thing in the next cage smelt clean,

almost like it was new. It didn't smell like an actual animal. It

smelt more like a load of washing, or the boiler suits worn by

the keepers every second Monday. Flappy had tried to

communicate this to his favourite keeper, but she'd simply

given his trunk a rub and fed him a banana. And now that the

woolly creature had woken up, it was behaving even more

oddly, pawing at the ground, and walking in strange

concentric circles.

Flappy wasn't to know, but the Polar Woolly Mammoth

was doing something very akin to pacing out the dimensions of

the cage.

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Chapter

8

The Doctor and Amy crouched low and stepped quietly into the

Zoo. The locks were red hot and smoking in the evening air.

To get to the enclosure" they had to sidle past a little hut

where the crying security guard was holding an ice pack to

his bruised head while his friend was busy putting plasters on

his injuries.

Safely past the hut, the Doctor and Amy ducked off the

main track and crept along behind the enclosures. This was

the secret part of the Zoo where the keepers stored the animal

food and the old, smelly hay. These shortcuts from the main

path zigzagged through the Zoo, and unwittingly the Doctor

and Amy stumbled out onto one of the main walkways.

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DOCTOR WH O

As a crowd of naughty school children went past, Amy

saw someone headed straight for them and pulled the

Doctor back. She was too late: a zookeeper returning from

her rounds stopped to talk to the Doctor.

'Hey, mister, nice bow tie.'

The Doctor turned to Amy, grinning triumphantly. 'See! I

told you it was cool. Just you wait and see, they'll all be

wearing them soon.'

Amy pointed over the Doctor's shoulder where the

keeper was still waiting to talk to the Doctor...

'School visiting time is over now, sir,' the keeper

continued. 'Would you be so kind as to fetch your class from

the petting zoo. It's closing time.'

Amy struggled to keep a straight face. The keeper thought

that the Doctor was a teacher.

The Doctor smiled and tried to explain himself. 'Ah, right,

you think I'm a teacher 'cos of the jacket and the bow tie, ah, I

think you'll see their teacher is actually over there.' He

pointed to the other side of the path, where a

flustered-looking man was having a sneaky cigarette by the

koala cage.

The teacher was a deeply uncool man in his forties,

flustered, paunchy and wearing a purple shirt and bow tie.

He was trying very hard to ignore the noise of the rowdy

children who were meant to be in his care.

Amy laughed out loud. 'You could so be brothers.'

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THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

The keeper pointed down the path. Thank you both. The

exit is that way.'

Amy held her hands up as the keeper walked away. 'I am

saying nothing. That was just priceless.'

'Yeah, quiet, Pond. Just keep walking...'

The Doctor and Amy followed the keeper's instructions

until they were out of sight, then ducked down another back

alley. The service path weaved in and out of the animal

enclosures and made the Zoo look like a crazy mass of

concrete walls, bars and piles of animal dung.

'Where do you put a mammoth in a place like this?' Amy

asked.

'Follow me,' said the Doctor, striding off down the dusty

path.

As the light faded, and the last visitors left, the Zoo

became dominated by the excitable chattering of wildlife.

Macaque monkeys squabbled in the trees, gnus lounged in

the long grass and, safe from view, polar bears did energetic

laps of their pool, throwing pieces of fish to each other as if

they were playing water polo.

As they walked, the Doctor told Amy the best way to

deal with wild animals. 'In a place like this they're all well

fed, so you've no real need to worry. Out in the wild there is

one very important thing to remember. You need to make

sure you look as little like food as possible.'

'Is that it?' Amy said. 'Grrrreat. Top advice.'

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DOCTOR WHO

The Doctor pointed to a crocodile, and they both went very

quiet.

Tiptoeing past, the Doctor whispered to Amy when they

were well clear of the reptile. 'I don't think he remembered

me... Never do a deal with a crocodile, Amy. They tend to eat

the contract.'

Amy laughed. 'You expect me to believe everything.'

Finally, they reached the large animal enclosure. The

mammoth's cage had been clumsily covered with white

plastic sheets, and a double fence closed the area off.

The Doctor looked at Amy. 'One more chance. Keep out

signs are like a red rag to a bull for you. I'm sure you can get

through here.'

Amy grinned, stepped forward, casually lifted the fence

from its support, and stepped through the gap. 'I've never paid

for a festival yet.'

Pushing up the bars, the Doctor tore the white plastic

sheet down, and found himself face to face with the Polar

Woolly Mammoth.

'Whoa! It must have been watching us through the sheets.

That's some eyesight it's got.' The Doctor took his sonic

screwdriver out and shone it into the mammoth's eyes.

This is beautiful work,' he said. 'Exceptional. It must

have taken years to make an iris and a pupil that work as well

as this. And the tusks! Yep, hardened dead hair, definitely

real.'

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THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

'So what's fake about it?' Amy asked. As she did, the

mammoth let rip a fart. That smells pretty real to me.'

The Doctor was staring absentmindedly into the distance.

'I wonder...' He fiddled with his sonic screwdriver and shone

a green light onto the mammoth's fur.

Where the beam touched the fur, the light seemed to linger,

as if the sonic screwdriver had caused the fur to glow.

'What are you doing, Doctor?' Amy asked.

The Doctor was too focused on his task to answer. 'This is

just amazing...' Swinging up on the bars of the enclosure, the

Doctor stood above the beast, and lit the mammoth with a

large torch. All of the creature was glowing a mysterious

green, phosphorescent in the dark of the Zoo.

'Where did you get that from?' Amy wondered, looking at

the torch.

'Big pockets. Not really relevant at the moment.'

'You want me to ask about the fur?'

'It's not fur. Can't be. Ordinary fur doesn't glow. And not

just with the sonic, it's any light source that sets it off.

Whatever else is real about this, the fur definitely isn't. Looks

like some kind of nano-fibre-optic technology, something

that certainly wasn't around in the mammoth's time.'

'Unless all the mammoths were alien robots.’ Amy

suggested.

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DOCTOR WHO

The Doctor grinned. 'I'll take you there some day, you

can find out for yourself.' As he spoke, he was fiddling with

his sonic screwdriver, and a beam of light shone into the

mammoth's ear, which began to twitch bizarrely.

'Ha! I've got it! But I think this is about to get very

embarrassing indeed.'

The Doctor leapt down into the enclosure with the

mammoth, and opened the gate from the inside to let Amy in.

He kept talking as he shut it carefully behind her. 'Very, very

embarrassing. I expect they'll be blushing when they have to

explain themselves.'

'Tell me what you mean.' Amy gave him a friendly punch

on the arm. Although not so friendly it didn't hurt him a bit.

'Hey, spaceman, you're not making sense!'

Rubbing his shoulder, the Doctor went on. 'Sorry, sorry, am

I talking out of sequence again? So many things in my head

sometimes they just come out in the wrong order. I'm not

mad, just got a very busy mind. But just as real fur can't be

activated with sonic technology, a real mammoth doesn't

have oil in its ear joints. In fact, it doesn't have "ear joints" at

all. And you certainly can't make it do this...'

Just as he'd made the oil in the Zoo's gate hinges explode,

the Doctor aimed the sonic screwdriver at the place where the

mammoth's ear met its head. A strange high-pitched whirring

filled the air. As the machinery inside the mammoth started

to vibrate,

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the mammoth's fur shook, rippling all over its body like a cat

under a hairdryer. The whirring changed to a keening

screech that increased in intensity the longer the Doctor

aimed the sonic screwdriver at the beast.

Then, with a loud thunk, a little hatch sprung open on the

side of the mammoth, just below its ear. Inside the white fur,

and below the skin, was hidden an intricate machine of

shining metal and whirring levers. A delicate spiral of cogs

and levers connected each muscle. From a distance it looked

like the inside of an expensive watch, or the innermost

workings of a town clock. The mechanism was sparkling

clean, glinting in the moon light. Where the ear met the head,

there was a masterpiece of engineering. Amy could see

wires, pistons and sensors, and things she'd never seen in her

Technology class in school. The Doctor whistled, as if he

couldn't help but admire the boldness of a plan that involved

someone disguising alien technology as a mammoth.

With another blast of the sonic screwdriver, the cogs

started to rattle, then stopped entirely. A few levers twitched,

then there was a loud bang, and they settled down. The Doctor

waited and watched.

I think that's shut it down...' He looked delighted. 'This is

so much better than just burgers! It was a disguise all along!

How brilliant! Just brilliantly stupid! Imagine the poor

creatures that made this. They came to Earth, went to the

trouble

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of disguising their spaceship, but, they got it wrong! It's the

twenty-first century, and they built a spy robot pretending to

be a mammoth!'

'Says the Time Lord disguised as a geography teacher.'

'Shut up, I look cool - you should pay more attention,

Leadworth girl.' The Doctor went up to the shiny hatch.

'Still, the Shadow Proclamation could be tied up for years

debating this. Sending a robot spy craft down, pretending to

be an extinct animal, no doubt looking for something or

other. I guess it was meant to scope out the planet for a

suitable invasion... I'm just amazed they got the colour

wrong.'

'Do you ever stop talking?' Underneath everything. Am y

thought she could hear a stomp-stomp-stomp. She was

worried by what she'd heard, but couldn't quite trust her ears.

'I don't think it's deactivated...'

Amy felt a tingle run down her spine. She listened again,

and was sure she could hear the sound of heavy footsteps,

getting louder and louder, building in size and reach.

In the cage next to them, an elephant started to trumpet in

panic, bashing the bars of his cage, eager to get away.

'Just listen!' Amy implored. There it was again. Stomp.

Stomp. Stomp. Still quiet, but definitely getting closer.

'What could be making that noise?'

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she asked. 'Did you say anything about a Trojan horse?'

'No, that would be impossible. There's barely room in

there for...' The Doctor looked at the size of mammoth. 'Well,

maybe one or two people.'

They both started to back away.

The noise came again. STOMP. STOMP. STOMP.

'But that sounds like hundreds of feet marching.’ Amy

insisted.

The Doctor nodded grimly. 'Like an army. Could be some

kind of TARDIS technology... A different dimension, but I'd

have noticed. Maybe it's a temporal gateway, but the

readings are wrong.

Amy looked at the Doctor. 'Doctor, what if they wanted

the fur to be wrong? What if they wanted to make it rare so

it'd be brought here? What if they wanted to be caught?'

Ever nearer, and even louder - STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!

Then the noise stopped.

It was so quiet Amy was sure she could hear her own

heartbeat.

Very, very quietly, the Doctor and Amy moved their

heads to listen to the mammoth. There was a sound like a key

being turned in a lock.

FATOOM! The entire belly of the mammoth hit the floor.

The Doctor and Amy gazed in wonder. The mammoth

had been split neatly in half and now

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looked like a dismantled toy - normal on top, but all of its

lower half descended to the floor. Bright lights blazed out

from within the mammoth and, finally, its innards were

revealed. The inside of the mammoth looked like a gleaming

alien spaceship. The muscle and skin had been no more than a

thin shell around a metal body, packed with fantastic-looking

alien technology.

'Whoa. What is that?' Amy looked at the Doctor as, with a

loud creak, the head of the mammoth turned to face them. 'I

thought you said it was turned off.'

The Doctor shrugged. 'Looks like I was wrong.'

'Will it shoot?' Amy asked.

'Don't be ridiculous,' the Doctor replied. 'It's a mammoth, it

doesn't have laser guns. It will gore us with those tusks...'

Amy failed to feel reassured.

With a loud hiss, the mammoth's belly was swathed in

smoke, and from within the haze came the sound of boots

marching, many times louder than before. STOMP! STOMP!

STOMP! Hundreds of boots, stamping hard as they marched

along the metal insides of the beast.

Above this barbarian sound, they could hear a high-pitched

'Left, right, left, right, left, right'.

As the stomp got louder, the animals of the Zoo were getting

restless, uniting in fear, as a mood of chaos spread in the chilly

air. The unholy cacophony

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of bellows, yowls and panicked growls echoed around the

enclosures.

Amy instinctively took a step back, freaked by the massed

cries of the Zoo animals.

The Doctor took a step forward. 'Now that is interesting.'

He peered into the hazy light. 'Someone has put an entire

army in there. There's something coming out, Amy, down

here, look!'

He dived onto his belly, and Amy joined him on the floor.

They were now at eye level with the metallic lower half of the

beast. As the smoke cleared, they could see that on top of the

living muscle was what looked like the deck of an aircraft

carrier. It was marked up with arrows, tiny lettering labelled

Muster Points and Lift Zones. With a whirring noise, tiny gun

turrets rose out of the deck and swivelled to point at the

Doctor and Amy.

Everything stopped.

Amy looked to the Doctor. 'Should we, er, be so close to it?'

'Probably not...' the Doctor agreed.

They started to get to their feet, but it was too late.

The mammoth let out a massive blast from its trunk, and

the entire Zoo fell silent. It sounded like no animal Amy had

ever heard, as if someone had combined the hunting cry of a

hungry wolf howl, with the deathly rattle of a cat screech and

the murderous growl of a grizzly bear. This was a

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bloodthirsty call. But it was no animal sound... This was alien.

When it faded, Amy took her hands away from her ears.

'What was that?'

'I think we're about to find out...' the Doctor replied.

Green-tinged energy beams zapped from the bottom of

the mammoth to the top, illuminating the inside with a

crackly glow. The beams joined together, weaving around

each other, until they formed a living, swirling sphere of

green energy. Burning like a poisonous star, the plasma

whirl of green light grew in strength, becoming brighter and

brighter.

Amy shielded her eyes, as it swelled to twice its size and

then shrank back down to its burning core. There followed a

massive explosion of green energy, zooming out across the

Zoo like a shockwave, making the animals ripple as it passed

through them. It was a ripple that never lost its power. A wave

that kept on crashing. Unstoppable, it spread out from the

Zoo and made its way across New York.

At first nothing changed.

That felt weird,' Amy told the Doctor. 'It was like I was

weightless for a second.' She waved her hand in front of her

face. 'All my fingers working, and still not webbed. All

looking good.'

'Amy, you know we said the Zoo was in the

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middle of the city... How accurate do you think that was?'

'It's pretty much the middle of Manhattan, halfway down

the island, and right in the centre. Oh...' Amy stopped when

she realised what the Doctor was thinking. 'So that green

thing... this is probably where they wanted to set it off from?'

The Doctor nodded back towards the belly. 'This wasn't a

mistake. This is an invasion.'

The marching noise had stopped. And standing in

formation on the deck of the belly was a phalanx of hundreds

of tiny, vicious alien soldiers.

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9

The aliens had heads like angry trolls, all hairy and mean, and

wore huge spiked helmets like the Kaiser's army in the First

World War. Their short bodies were festooned with weapons:

vicious curved swords, stabbing daggers, hand grenades and

the most extraordinary guns Amy could ever have imagined.

A high-pitched voice yelled 'Present Arms!' and the

massed ranks of aliens raised the guns so they were aiming

right at the Doctor and Amy. Their leader marched forward

through the rows of alien soldiers, holding himself like a man

who knows his rightful place is in command. He carried a

baton, and had a magnificently plumed red helmet. As he

passed each row, he bellowed at the troops, making

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them snap into order. They were all clearly terrified of him.

Only one thing stopped Amy from shrinking back

with fear. The soldiers were about seven centimetres tall.

'They're like toys!' She burst out laughing. 'How cute.’

She stretched her hand out above the battalion to

measure their size. 'Wow! There's a whole army of them!

Can I keep them, Doctor? Oh, please say I can? They had the

perfect invasion plan, so long as no one stands on them by

mistake.'

The first row of soldiers armed their weapons and

aimed them at Amy's hand.

The Doctor was very quiet and very serious. He gently

moved Amy's hand away, and addressed himself to the

figure that was obviously their General. His tiny features

were twitching with frustration and rage. Amy thought he

looked like Wayne Rooney at his angriest and most

stubborn, red faced and blotchy, ready to scream at the world

at the least hint of subordination.

'Sorry about her, she's new, well, so to speak. I'm the

Doctor, and what are you doing here?'

The General turned to his troops and signalled them to

lower their weapons. He stepped forward, hit a button on

his baton, and rose on a lift, until he was eye to eye with

the Doctor. The little alien pointed his baton at the Doctor

and scanned his

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eyes, then turned sharply to Amy and repeated the move.

'You confirm my observations. One humanoid, early

stages of evolutionary development. No gills. Limited

intellect. And one unidentified species.'

'Time Lord, Oncoming Storm, Defender of Earth, take your

pick. But who are you?' the Doctor asked the forceful little

alien.

'I am Erik, General of the 99th Vykoid Expeditionary

Force. I have at my disposal the might and fury of the

Vykoid Army. And you will surrender to me!'

Amy looked at General Erik with curiosity. He had the

unconvincing swagger of a new boy on his first day at school.

Brash and knowing, yet a look that suggested he'd be only too

easy to unsettle.

'Nah,' the Doctor was saying. 'Not surrendering to you in a

beast like that. You've come prepared for the wrong century,

make that wrong millennia... You're not going to get

anywhere if those are your wheels. Now look, not to worry, I

can help you get home, but I won't have a war. I forbid it. No

one gets hurt today.'

To capture the moment, Amy slid her phone open and

snapped a picture on her mobile phone. General Erik's face

reddened with rage.

'That's not helping,' the Doctor said to Amy. 'Peace in Our

Time wasn't interrupted by passers-by uploading the pictures

onto Facebook...'

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'Peace in Our Time didn't last long anyway.’Amy pointed

out. 'It didn't end up saving any lives.'

General Erik waved his baton angrily. 'You are fools. We

will take no lives. Our slaves will work for the glory of the new

Vykoid Empire.'

Amy could see the Doctor flinch at the word, his revolve

hardening. 'What do you mean - slaves?' he demanded.

With the confidence of the victor, General Erik calmly

explained. 'We have a more worthwhile occupation for

these New Yorkers. I have observed them today, and they are

a weak and unproductive species. The Desiccated mines of

Cassetia 2 have been waiting for workers. We hoped to

take the famous mighty beasts of Ancient Earth to do the

work of millions of Vykoids. But as there are none left, I

shall return instead with millions of your well-fed drones.'

The Doctor's face fell. He looked more than a little

disgusted. 'Amy, have you heard of the island in the Pacific

made up of dried seagull droppings? After hundreds of

years it turns into guano and it's mined to be made into

explosives.' Amy pulled a face as the Doctor kept on. 'Well

the Cassetia asteroids were excreted several millions years

ago by a mighty Space-Boar. A race of giant carnivores, they

ate only rotting meat from the swamps of Malmatine 5, and

grew so huge they evolved into creatures capable of

travelling in space. A herd of

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Space-Boars ate their way around the universe for 20,000

years before producing the asteroids. Some say it's the worst

smell in the entire galaxy. The most concentrated foul stench

you can possibly imagine. I've heard terrible stories of the

Vykoid slave mines. The smell is so foul, that one whiff can

make your hair fall out, and turn your eyes green. The

atmosphere of the mines actually prolongs the lives of the

slaves. Anyone they take will work for three hundred years

or more...'

General Erik's plan seemed insane to Amy. There were

millions of people in New York, and there was no way the

miniature army could simply kidnap all of them. 'Doctor?

Can't they, you know, take the animals here?'

'Not exactly fair on the poor animals, is it? But hang on,

good point, why can't you take beasts from elsewhere?'

Amy thought she could see General Erik grinning. 'You will

be easier to defeat.'

Amy was surprised by his confidence. The Vykoid army had

the enchanting freedom of shipwrecked men, with nothing

more to lose, and everything to gain. Amy whispered in the

Doctor's ear. 'We can stop them, right?'

The Doctor grinned at Amy. 'Oh, yes!' Turning his head

away from General Erik, he addressed the neat ranks of

soldiers, gazing into their beady little eyes. 'Listen to me,

army of Vykoid warriors. Your

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war is over. Your time has gone. There is not a single person or

creature on the planet that you are fit to touch. Return to your

planet, and tell everyone you meet that the people of Earth are

born free. You got a problem with that? Come see me!'

The Vykoid troops watched the Doctor stony-faced.

'And don't listen to old Sour-Face here.’ the Doctor went

on, pointing at General Erik. 'Look around you! This is a

place of beauty and life. You will not harm anyone. Now,

scram, before I have to do something about it.'

General Erik became even more furious. 'I will not be

undermined in front of my troops by this lumbering beast.

By a pacifist! All my years of training in the Vykoid army

have prepared me for moments like this. I have heard the

legends of the great Vykoid heroes, and soon it will be my

time to join them.' He puffed out his diminutive chest and

went on. 'I too will have a statue built for me, in the Hall of

Honour on our home planet! Efficiency and punctuality are

the backbone of any successful military campaign, and since

we seem to have woken up several thousand years too late, I

am not about to waste any more time.'

His speech finished, General Erik turned his back on the

Doctor, and barked at his men: 'Activate the Temporal Lock!'

The ranks split, and a select group of soldiers

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quick-marched back into the mammoth. They obviously hadn't

been deterred by the Doctor's speech, and seemed only too keen

to follow General Erik's commands.

'Doctor?' Amy raised an eyebrow. 'What's a temporal lock?'

The mammoth was beginning to stir into life once more.

Lights were clicking on inside its body, shining out of its eyes

and ears. With a grinding noise, the mammoth's trunk was

raised into the air, and started to revolve like an aerial.

The Doctor scrambled to his feet and took Amy's hand. 'I

think, given the circumstances, it would be a good idea if we

run\'

Amy couldn't tear her eyes from the Vykoid troops.

Everything they did was so regimented and neat. She thought

that this might just be the best-organised army she'd ever seen.

General Erik was shouting commands and waving his hands

around, and the front ranks appeared to be preparing to attack

something.

With a sudden feeling of dread, Amy realised who they

were getting ready to attack. 'Running... yeah... I'm definitely

with you on that.'

But before they could move, the air around them glowed

green, just as it had when the circular wave had exploded. Amy

could feel every cell in her body vibrate, like she was

undergoing her own mini-earthquake. After it had passed

through her,

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she could see the effects travelling over the whole Zoo - the

rhinos and elephants shuddering as they shook.

'What was that?' she asked.

The Doctor patted himself up and down. 'I feel... the same as

before... but... Oh, Amy, look at that.'

In the few seconds they had looked away, the Vykoid Army

had equipped themselves with hundreds of tiny combat

vehicles, rather like toy jeeps, and were preparing to move out.

The Doctor stepped closer. 'I thought I told you lotto...'

Something extraordinary was happening. The Vykoids

were now moving with impossible speed, like Keystone

Cops on fast forward. In the time it took the Doctor to make

one step, they had unloaded mini combat helicopters, tanks and

troop transporters. There was even a mobile kitchen set up,

serving out soup to the troops.

'How did they do that?' Amy asked.

By the time she'd finished the question, the Vykoid army

had put wheels on the base of the air deck in the mammoth's

belly and had loaded it up to depart.

Amy moved quickly, and flung herself at the army,

determined to stop them throwing themselves at New York. As

much for their sake as hers. She didn't want a new species to be

slaughtered, just by misjudging their sense of scale.

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But as she lunged, Amy felt hundreds of pinpricks on her

ankles. The Vykoid troops were scampering up her legs, so

quickly she could barely make them out. These were

specialist climbing Vykoids, equipped with ropes, carabiners

and the like. She may have imagined it, but Amy was sure

they stopped for a tea break on her kneecap, before

continuing their climb.

Within seconds, Amy had been pulled to the ground,

every bit of her tied and secured. General Erik marched onto

her face and peered into her large eyes. To him, she must have

seemed like some wondrous deep-sea creature, all plate-sized

eyes, enormous limbs and improbable physics.

This close to him, Amy could see the Vykoid's features

properly for the first time. His skin was tough, like leather left

out too long in the elements, and his eyes were mean and

dark. The spirit of conquest was strong in him, and Amy felt

rebellion rise in her heart - she would not be bested by him.

General Erik didn't talk, he boomed. 'Do you accept our

victory?'

'No!' Amy bellowed back. Her breath was so strong

General Erik was almost rocked off his feet.

'Analyse her!' he snapped, and in a flash he was replaced

with dozens of white-coated Vykoids. Scientist Vykoids,

Amy thought, trying to clear her head of the notion that she

could feed the Vykoid army for a millennium, should they

decide to eat

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her. Or, even worse, they could make their next vehicle

inside her... Where was the Doctor when she needed him?

She tried to turn her head but was rewarded with a sharp

jab in her ear, and an outraged squeaking from below.

'Sorry!' she called out. 'I can't see you back there, don't have

eyes in the back of my head.'

As one, the Vykoid scientists started lifting her hair and

examining her scalp for hidden eyes.

Then, as rapidly as they'd arrived, the Vykoids had gone.

Not a squeak to be heard. And it had got dark. Amy realised

she had been unconscious - she must have been out for hours.

She lifted her hand and found it was no longer restrained.

Luckily, the Zoo was well lit, so she could see her watch.

She was amazed to see that it was close to midnight. She

also saw that her hand had been stamped in bold red ink: 'Not

Suitable.'

Amy guessed that this was a good thing. The entire

Vykoid army had shipped on out. But, oh, this was much,

much worse than she'd thought. They had left her behind,

but they had taken the Doctor with them. She was on her

own in New York. And the Army of the Vykoids was

marching to take Manhattan.

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Around her, the animals had gone back to their night-time activities

- meerkats chittering to themselves and giraffes sleeping

quietly.

'Doctor!' she shouted into the Zoo, but there was no reply.

She kept thinking his tousled head might emerge, grinning

like it was all part of his plan, but it looked like he was really

gone. This was hopeless. Amy was going to have to stop the

Vykoids alone.

'OK, don't panic.’ she told herself. 'Just think -what would

the Doctor do? First off, no talking to yourself, definitely a

bad thing...'

She was alone, in a locked cage in a zoo, while an army of

tiny soldiers had been let loose in New York. She had no

idea what they wanted, or how she was going to find the

Doctor.

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'Come on, come on.’ she thought. 'Not done yet. Assets,

Assets! OK, no Doctor, no sonic screwdriver, no ray gun... and

still talking to myself.'

Amy put her hand into her pocket, and was delighted to

find the psychic paper. 'Ha! Just what I need.'

As confident as Amy liked to pretend to be in front of

the Doctor, she had rarely been alone in a foreign city

before, let alone one being invaded by diminutive aliens.

She told herself she just had to focus on finding the Doctor.

Amy wasn't one for fainting or calling out for help.

So, to her great surprise, Amy found herself searching

for tracks in the sawdust and hay of the Zoo, peering into the

gloom of the night. Skirting the now quiet and still mammoth,

she saw neat rows of tiny footprints and tyre tracks from the

miniature jeeps. And alongside was a larger dragging mark,

which could only be the Doctor.

Amy fought to keep down her sense of panic. The

Doctor had been kidnapped by a tiny alien race, but he was

bound to be all right. He'd been through far worse, and even if

he was in trouble, he'd be fine as soon as she found him.

Following the Vykoid trail was tricky. They'd darted

through tiny openings, and Am y found herself squeezing

through gaps, and heading over large objects. At one fence,

she was impressed to see that the Vykoids had made time to

construct a

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ramp up and down either side so they could march straight

over the top, dragging the Doctor behind. Like a column of

ants, they'd taken their prey and had headed single-mindedly

out of the Zoo.

The trail led Amy out onto Fifth Avenue. Looking up for a

moment, Amy gazed in wonder at the New York skyline,

gleaming in the night sky. If anything, it looked bigger at

night. A vast tribute to human might, with office lights

shining far brighter than the stars and galaxies above. It was

true what they said: bright lights, big city.

But as she marvelled at Fifth Avenue, Amy realised she

had lost any way of tracking the Vykoids. The hard tarmac

showed no traces of the tiny army, and even the Doctor's

drag marks were impossible to see. Amy hadn't imagined

she'd ever yearn to have a husky as a faithful companion, but

short of finding a big sign saying 'Doctor this way', she was

stumped... She couldn't even go back to the TARDIS, as the

Doctor had hidden it and she had no idea of how to get it back.

Amy wasn't intimidated by what was ahead. She had

always made the most of where she was and -whether it was

Leadworth or New York - she wasn't about to let herself

flounder. Smiling, she thought to herself of the new gang

she'd form. The Pond Gang.

With this in mind, Amy was delighted to get back to their

stolen squad car - and to see a familiar

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figure silhouetted at the wheel of another police patrol car

across the road from her.

Oscar seemed to have nodded off to sleep, but Amy's

squeal of delight woke him up.

'Hey!' Amy called through the car window. 'A sexy man

in uniform waiting to look after me. You don't know it yet,

but you are just what I wanted to find.'

Stepping out of his car, Oscar looked Amy up and down.

'What's that on your clothes?' he asked, pointing at the

elephant dung. 'Smells like—'

'Shut up!' Amy cut him off. 'This is an emergency. A big

one. Just here. Me, in fact. I need your help.' Amy winked at

Oscar. 'Work with me, I'll see if I can put a good word in.

Who knows, could be a promotion in this for you.'

Oscar didn't look that impressed by Amy's offer, but she

pressed on. 'It's good to see you again, Oscar. I thought I'd

have to ring 999 or something, sorry, should be 911

shouldn't it. But no - here you are already! That's what I call

community policing.'

Oscar seemed perturbed by her attitude, and Amy

decided to try a different approach. She hadn't watched all of

Glee without learning a bit about American culture. 'My

friend is in great danger, and I need you to help me find

him.' She thought she should lay it on a bit thicker for his

sentimental American side and continued: 'Of course, thing

is, I'm at a point in my life now where I have some

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big decisions to make, and its getting kind of tough but I'm

gonna pull through it all, thing is, I need your help, tonight,

and I will be grateful for ever.' It seemed to be working. At

least, Oscar was not actually disagreeing with her. 'Oh, and

another thing - we're going to need a dog. You can manage

that can't you?'

Amy smiled. She was getting the hang of this. Of all the

things she'd thought New York had to offer, chatting up hot

cops was definitely an added bonus. And here she was,

assembling a crack team to save New York. Back home, Rory

wouldn't even trust her to make a cup of tea, let alone choose

the button that might save the world. Now, she was like The

A-Team meets Cagney and Lacey. Since meeting the Doctor

she'd had the chance to do so much more, and be better then

she'd ever imagined. Now she was ready to go solo.

Oscar had retreated back into his squad car, having a long

conversation with someone on his phone. He hadn't told

Amy who he was calling, but from the sound of it, he was

pretty scared of them.

As he ended the call, Amy leant in the window, and

smiled as nicely as she could. 'So have we got a pooch?'

Oscar nodded, with a pained expression that he was

doing his best to hide. 'The tracker dog is on its way.'

*

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Back in her office, Commander Strebbins had called in all the

officers she had at her disposal, and had placed the city on a

Level One alert. She had no intelligence to back this up, but

knew in her gut that she needed to get the pieces in place. She

was more than happy to let Oscar have whatever resources he

needed as long as he was sticking with the enigmatic Amy

Pond.

Her records showed that Amy was nothing more than a

kissogram from a small town in England. She had no

connections to UNIT and there were no records of her

working with the Doctor, yet she had thrown herself into the

action at the Museum like a seasoned professional. She was

definitely hiding something, and Strebbins suspected it

would lead to the heart of the matter.

Amy was impressed with the speed at which Oscar had been

able to summon help. As she waited on the pavement, he was

talking earnestly to another police officer, who was

mid-handover of an excitable Alsatian.

As Oscar signed some papers, Amy gazed again at the

New York skyline, glowing brightly in the night sky. This

was a place where so many people had come to find their

dreams and start their lives all over again. Perhaps it was true,

and if Amy could make it here, she'd be able to make it

anywhere. Oscar seemed a good start for the Pond Gang, if a

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bit quiet. He had a disconcerting habit of noting down

everything Amy said, but as long as he was on her side she

didn't really mind.

She'd thought of recruiting the new officer who had

turned up, but he'd been decidedly grumpy, and she could

do without that. Amy heard the dog van's engines start up,

and pull off to reveal Oscar, fully kitted up, and a bouncy

Alsatian by his side. Her team was in place. She smiled,

and said out loud, 'Bring it on, New York!'

Then, one by one, the skyscrapers' lights started to go out.

First the Empire State Building changed from a beacon of

light to a mere silhouette, then the Bank of Manhattan

became a slab of black granite. New York was losing power

and flickering like cameras at a concert, the entire skyline

changed to black.

Am y stared up Fifth Avenue as a wave of Upper West

Side's grand buildings all receded into darkness. The

streetlamps that marked out the grids of the city so neatly

lost their sodium glow and, block by block, New York

became as dark as the heart of the rainforest...

Am y looked around her in horror. New York had been

blackened by an accumulation of night. She wasn't scared

of the dark, but dark in a city was a different kind of

feeling. The buildings around her now looked like

tombstones, mere ghosts of skyscrapers, casting dark blots

and angles

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against the sky. Manhattan felt smaller, and more

dangerous. Only the island of Manhattan had lost power,

and the orange spill of Queens and New Jersey marked the

edge of the blackout zone. But rather than reassure Amy, it

made the city feel even darker, totally enclosed.

All around her, office buildings were emptying early for

the night. People were starting to pile out onto the streets,

laughing and cheering; grinning late-shift workers,

delighted to be released from a night of hard work stuck to

their computers. She was sure she could see a firework

going off above Harlem. New Yorkers loved a party, and this

looked like it was going to make Saturday night a whole lot

more fun.

Wandering near her, a girl was struggling with her

phone.

'Hello? Dan? Are you there? I don't know how I'm going

to get home.'

Amy called out to Oscar. 'Check your phone.'

He gave the answer she was expecting: 'It isn't working.'

As Amy listened, she heard a kind of quiet that hadn't

reached the city in decades. Nothing was working. Bars

were shutting their doors, restaurant kitchens were closing,

the Metro lines were down, as all the things the city relied on

had simply stopped.

When she was a child back in Scotland, they'd

sometimes had blackouts that lasted for hours -

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technology briefly beaten back by snow, or floods, or just by

a car hitting a pylon. But there were twelve million people

here, and Amy knew the lights weren't going to snap on any

time soon like they had in Inverness.

Amy wanted to stop everyone walking past and shepherd

them inside. This wasn't a temporary fault or an excuse for a

short-lived party in the dark. The Vykoid Army was behind

this and, unless Amy could find the Doctor and stop them,

light wasn't going to return to New York.

She was baffled by how powerful the pint-sized aliens

were. They were a strange and terrifying kind of army. They

operated anonymously under the shadow of darkness, and

with a motive so clear and so brutal it was difficult to do

anything but plunge into conflict with them. A battle Amy

desperately wanted to avoid.

If only she could find the Doctor.

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Chapter

11

Oscar had already raced back to his car and pulled out his radio

to call in to the station. Amy hurried over, leant in and

switched it off.

'Hey!' Oscar protested.

Amy simply smiled at him. 'You don't need that thing any

more. I'll give you all the commands you'll need. So - down

to business. I've lost my friend, and I need you to help me

find him. So get Fido over here, and let's go!'

'Lady are you seriously telling me that in the middle of

the biggest blackout since 1922, you expect me to help you?'

Amy smiled. 'Don't take it so hard. You may have won

the War of Independence, but right now you can consider

yourself my colonial conquest...'

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Oscar considered for a moment, then nodded in

agreement.

Amy beamed at him 'Good! Let's go to work then, partner.'

She cheerily took the car keys out of the ignition and called

to the dog. 'Over here, Fido!'

Oscar's sniffer dog leapt up at her, excited to be on a case

after hours dozing on the station floor. Amy pulled a bow tie

from her pocket and dangled it in front of the dog. 'This is

one of his most colourful,' she confided. 'I've confiscated it,

in case he ever decides to wear it...'

The dog was acting strangely, not used to the smell of a

Time Lord.

'Come on.’ Amy went on. "There's a good dog. Eurgh,

this actually has one of his hairs on it,' Amy pulled away a

long strand of hair, adding, 'He is such a girl.'

Oscar was watching Amy with a weary look on his face.

He clapped his hands, and the dog ran to his feet. 'His name is

Bismarck. And he'll do as I say...' Another clap of his hands

had Bismarck tracing the ground for a scent, dashing to and

fro in ten-metre bursts, covering the area methodically.

'My friend was on the pavement there.' Amy pointed, but

Oscar looked confused. 'Oh, OK, if it makes you happy, on

the sidewalk. Honestly, it's not like you've got a mainwalk, is

it?'

Oscar opened his mouth to answer, but then Bismarck

gave a businesslike bark and started to

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hare along the sidewalk towards downtown New York.

Amy turned to Oscar, surprised. 'I thought he might have

been taken to Central Park or something. Wouldn't someone

have noticed a man being dragged along the street?'

This was something Oscar did understand. 'You see all

sorts in New York, ma'am. Takes a lot to stop traffic.'

As they followed Bismarck, Oscar asked: 'So, tell me about

this guy we're trying to find.'

'The Doctor?' Amy paused. There was something about

Oscar that made her want to tell him everything. 'He's the

most amazing man you'll ever meet, Oscar. So wonderful,

and so kind, and able to do the most incredible things. He's

shown me places I didn't know existed, and made me realise I

can do things I never expected. But most of all, he'll walk

across the galaxies to stop a single innocent life being lost.

He's the man I've been waiting for almost my whole life, and

now I've found him, it's even better than I expected.'

From his expression, Oscar clearly thought Amy was in

love with the Doctor. She quickly decided to tone down the

limitless appreciation.

'He's also a complete buffoon, with a silly fringe, and bandy

legs, and the most bizarre way of talking. But if he was here,

Oscar, he'd have the lights back on again in a second.'

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Amy realised Oscar was now trying to work out exactly

how mad she was. She smiled at her tame New York cop.

'Don't think so hard, Oscar. Tomorrow you may never see me

again. This is the life, eh? On the trail of a mystery man with a

dog at midnight. Plus you get a hot companion for your

evening's work...'

Oscar blushed.

'No need to be shy, Oscar,' Amy continued. 'I might need a

cocktail later...'

The police dog led them down Fifth Avenue, past the Metro

station, and towards the looming arch of the Grand Army Plaza

Memorial, more sombre than ever in the dark.

'Right, it's my turn now,' Amy said, eager to reverse the

stakes with Oscar. 'So what got you into this? Was it Starsky and

Hutch or The Sopranos?' Oscar didn't know what to say. 'Or

maybe The A-Team? Come on, you can tell me, I know what it's

all about. A great battle of good versus evil, you on the side of

good, plus you get to wear a sexy uniform.'

'My dad was a cop,' Oscar mumbled.

Amy nodded. 'Good reason. Better than my reason for

joining the police.'

'Why?' Oscar asked curiously.

'The Chief of Police in New Scotland Yard made a deal: either

turn cop, or do a ten-year stretch...'

'No way!' Oscar said, wide-eyed with astonishment.

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'Course not, dumbo!' Amy laughed. 'Imagine me, in

stripy prisoner clothes! I am going to have so much fun

winding you up. We'll be like the new Bonnie and Clyde,

except, of course, we'll be good guys.'

Amy's laughter was interrupted by a sudden crash. Far up

the street, towards Central Park, she could see people

running into the middle of the street. A massive plate glass

window had smashed into tiny fragments, showering shards

on the pavement. Amy and Oscar stared up the road,

Bismarck growling at the unseen aggressor.

There was a second crash, and another window fell into

little pieces. This time the building was nearer to them.

'What's happening?' Oscar asked

Before Amy could answer, they saw a brick fly through

the windscreen of the stolen squad car. Its alarm made a

weak bleat, like a newborn lamb. Drained of power, like

everything else in the city it soon fell silent.

'I told the Doctor we shouldn't have taken the car,' Amy

told Oscar. 'That's gonna take some explaining.'

Amy.’ Oscar was agitated. 'That brick. No one threw it. I

was watching... How'd it fly through the air by itself?'

Another crash echoed through the night.

The lamp-post above their heads shattered.

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They ducked as the glass fell, then leapt clear as the

lamp-post itself fell and slammed into the ground between

them.

Amy looked Oscar in the eye. 'I don't really know. I

normally get to ask questions like that.'

With a series of ear-splitting roars, the glass windows

of the Trump Tower above them began to crack, lines

breaking across it, as if hundreds of abseiling window

cleaners were having a mad moment of rebellion and

cracking each pane with the heels of their boots.

'But,' Am y continued, 'there's something you probably

need to know.'

Behind them, Central Park's ducks rose up from the lake

in terror - the water stirred to a frenzy by some unknown

force. The lake settled again, but a fearsome whirlpool at

its heart began to spread its vortices across the lake. The

water was being drained away, as if someone had pulled a

plug.

Amy had never seen such madness. She stood in the

middle of Fifth Avenue and watched as every lamp-post in

sight was torn from its footings and thrown into the road.

Drinkers chucked out of the bars were having the beer

bottles torn from their hands.

Around them the air was filled with a vicious clangin g

of metal being bent out of shape. In front of them, the

facades of the buildings were being pitted with tiny holes.

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Something was descending down Fifth Avenue with the

force and fury of an army of the undead.

'Have you noticed?' Oscar asked. 'Everything is being

smashed in a line.'

Sure enough, the chaos appeared to be moving along the

street, people running in front of the mayhem, desperate to

avoid the flying debris in the air.

'Yep. And the exciting thing is it's heading this way.'

Amy came to a halt in the midst of the debris. 'But we're not

moving.'

'What?' asked Oscar incredulously.

'Look at it. They're sweeping everyone off the streets.

Someone wants us to move, Oscar. And I'm not feeling very

cooperative today.'

Amy knew she was right. First the Vykoids had killed th e

power, and now they were sweeping the streets clear of

people. If the same thing was happening across the city, then

everyone on the streets was being herded downtown. Amy

didn't want to tell Oscar what was going to happen to people

when they got there.

They're going to have to do more than this to move us out

of the way,' she said.

As the lamp-posts crashed down, Amy pulled Oscar close

to her, and the wave of mayhem moved past them.

Told you it would be OK.' Amy grinned from ear to ear.

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Oscar was looking at her with a serious expression on his face.

'You said "they". I just reckoned New York had been hit by

freak weather conditions. What do you mean "they"?'

Amy hesitated. 'Oscar, there's no easy way to tell you this.

But I knew we wouldn't get hurt. This isn't an accident. It's a

plan. Breaking glass, tearing down lamp-posts. It's scary, but

look, no one's been hurt. Not many people could do that. And

I've seen something today that you're going to find hard to

believe. So bite your lip, and just keep thinking of when you

were young and saw things that couldn't be true, but they turned

out to be the real thing.'

Oscar nodded, keen to hear anything that might still the

panic that was rising in him.

Amy continued. "The things doing this aren't people.

They're aliens. They're an alien army. Something that's been

hidden on Earth for so long it was forgotten. Now they're

awake, and they want New York. There was a lot more than we

thought inside that mammoth, and it's got out.'

'I don't get you,' Oscar said, thinking that maybe she was a

nutter after all.

'Have you got binoculars?' Amy asked.

'What?'

'Just... Binoculars. Please.'

Oscar went through his pockets, pulling out a pair. Amy

looked down the street until she spotted a lamp-post that was

still standing. She squinted

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at the ground around it, then gave a short cry of triumph.

'Yes! That one, there. Focus on that one, that's right -

you'll need to be quick. Right at the base of the post.'

Oscar focused the binoculars on the lamp-post, then

gasped with astonishment as he saw a team of ten tiny aliens

cutting into its base with a minuscule circular saw, while

others tied tiny wires around the pole.

Without binoculars, Amy could barely make out what was

happening. It felt like she was watching time-lapse

photography, the tiny Vykoids were moving so fast. In

only a few seconds, they'd cut away a chunk of metal at the

base, and pulled the pole onto the ground.

"That's not possible!' Oscar exclaimed. 'Have you put

something in my drink?'

Amy put her hands on his shoulders. 'I know this is a bit

crazy, your head is probably spinning like you've had too

much coffee, and part of you wants to sit down and give up.

But you're not going to. You've been sent to follow me 'cos

you're the best they've got.'

'How did you know that?' Oscar demanded.

Amy smiled. 'Oscar, everyone in New York could tell

you were waiting for me.' She continued. 'While we're

together, we're safe. We can beat these things.'

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Oscar frowned. 'I'll get in touch with Commander

Strebbins, and we'll get all the units we need. We have

weapons so smart, the tech guys have probably got something

perfect for blasting tiny people into even tinier pieces.'

Amy put her hand on his mouth. 'Haven't you been

listening to me? We do this without guns, without violence.

Today, no one's going to get hurt. Those are the things that

have my friend, and the Doctor is the only person who can

stop them. If we can get him back he'll know exactly what to

do.'

Oscar was looking at Amy in obvious confusion. 'How can

you be so calm about this? This is crazy. It's like Jim

Henson's workshop has come to life out there!'

Amy could tell how stressed he was, how much he

wanted to fall back on what he'd normally do - pull a gun

and tell the criminals to stand down. 'I need you at your

best, Oscar. Just trust me.' She gave him a hug.

'We're gonna need more troops for this.’ he insisted. 'We

can't handle this alone...'

Amy sighed. 'I bet you were scared of noises in the night

when you were young.’

Oscar nodded.

'And then you found out it was just the wind blowing.’

Amy said, 'and you knew it was going to be OK?'

Oscar nodded again.

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Am y smiled. 'Good, then think of them like they're the

wind. You can't shoot it, but you can shut it out.'

Oscar still wasn't convinced. 'I just can't believe what I

saw. I mean, where are they all gone?'

It was true that the Vykoids had moved on, but Amy

couldn't afford to lose her only ally for lack of proof.

'Think for a minute.’ she said. 'That's all I'm asking, just

think. If they aren't real, then what else do you know that

could do all these things?'

Oscar didn't have an answer.

'Maybe you're right, Oscar.’ Amy told him, 'and there's

no life outside Manhattan, and there's no pride except being

NYPD for life. But I've seen more of the universe in the last

few days than you can imagine. Sometimes it's the most

exhilarating feeling, like riding an amazing rollercoaster

through the stars. But there are things out there that are so

dark and so tortured they want to conquer and capture

everything they meet. The mammoth wasn't a miracle, Oscar.

It came back to life because it had thousands of aliens inside

it. That's what's causing the chaos on the street.'

Oscar gaped.

'Yeah, it's not like alien attacks in the movies. This one

is practically invisible, and sudden, and unless we stop

them, they'll get under every bed in New York. You have to

believe me, Oscar. You can't

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fight them like normal criminals. They aren't even a normal

army. We need to be smarter than them. Better than them.'

Amy held up her phone so that Oscar could see the

screen. 'Here, I think you're ready for the close-up view.' The

picture Amy had taken showed Erik the Vykoid squinting

angrily at the Doctor, waving his baton in indignation.

"That's them?' Oscar asked incredulously. 'You've met

them?'

Amy smiled. She'd got him. 'Yeah, get used to it. Now,

you on my side or theirs? Mine, yeah? Thought so! Come

on - let's take this together, but we'll do it my way...'

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Chapter

12

New York was descending into a night of terror. But one person in

the city felt like her hour had come. In a darkened NYPD

office, Commander Strebbins was yelling at her colleagues.

'What do you mean radio signals are down?' She slammed

her useless phone handset down into its cradle and walked up

to her window.

Outside the city was dark and vulnerable. The ill-lit streets

below were easy targets for. .. something. This was exactly

why she had been put in place. Commander Strebbins knew

that her first priority was to protect the banks, shops and

private properties. Already there had been reports of looting

from downtown department stores. But, an instinct honed

through years of police work was tingling.

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She suspected that this was the start of something much

bigger. And Jackie Strebbins wasn't about to be caught on

the hop.

Striding out into the main office, she collared the nearest

cop. 'Raise us to Level Three, but I want to hold back on the

main units. Don't commit the elite armed police to any crime

scene unless you have express orders from me.'

Gathering his courage, the young cop asked, 'How

should I get the message out, ma'am?'

Strebbins didn't miss a beat. 'Better start running.'

She didn't like to admit it, but the business with the

mam moth had unsettled her. She wasn't one for

superstition, but she took anything out of the ordinary as a

sign of danger. The UNIT involvement made her

uncomfortable. She liked to think she could deal with

anything her own way, not rely on someone who came and

went when he pleased, and didn't report to anyone.

Maybe the mammoth was just a distraction, and the

Doctor had been and gone. But she couldn't shake the

feeling that in some other part of town people were

getting ready to harm the city she loved. Commander

Strebbins was about to make one of the most important

calls of her career but, like many such moments, it seemed

to her to be the only natural choice she could make.

Strebbins called a cadet over. 'Run to the Mayor's

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office, and give him the following message.'

The cadet scrambled for his pad.

'Under protocol 578, I am initiating a period of intense

policing under the Night Storm strategy.’ Strebbins said

rapidly. 'In short, I'm closing down the streets. He better tell

the President that there'll be pictures of tanks on Broadway

in the papers tomorrow. He'll give you a list of objections.

Listen carefully to him, write down everything he says, then

throw it in the garbage on the way out.'

Strebbins realised that the cadet was still taking notes.

'You do understand that the last things I said weren't part

of the message?'

The cadet blushed and hastily scribbled out the last few

lines.

'Then,' Strebbins continued, 'after he's objected for five

minutes exactly, give him this next message: "As far as I'm

concerned, there is no other course of action open to us." Is

that understood?' Strebbins paused. She felt a bit like an

old-style general dictating orders like this. And she had to

admit she liked it.

'Yes, ma'am.’ the cadet replied.

'Good.' Strebbins knew it wasn't going to be easy. She'd be

explaining her decision for a long time to come. Yet, as she

looked out of her window at the city below, she knew it was

a place worth saving. Some people would squawk away,

attempting to

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deny the facts of a situation, or pretend it was about

something else entirely. But Strebbins knew what was

needed was control. She needed to get the city running

again, and nothing and no one was going to stop her.

Amy and Oscar chased after Bismarck the tracker dog, as

he led them down Fifth Avenue. As they reached the Arch,

Bismarck skidded to a halt and started to growl at

something.

Amy could immediately tell that something was very

wrong. The debris around this crossroads was worse than the

other streets, with three of the roads blocked. Yet one

roadway had been left clear. It was far too much of a

coincidence for this not to be a trap.

Almost on cue, six blacked-out vehicles screeched up the

road and swung into the crossroads. The police vans had

blockaded the only passable road, and police officers piled

out of the vans. In their full riot gear, they looked like

modern-day gladiators, advancing their line towards the

scene of the most debris.

One of the police officers lifted his visor and shouted to

the street, 'This is now a police-controlled area. Make your

way to your homes. The streets are now under police control.'

As they moved down the street, the officers started to

wince. The first six riot police suddenly

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found that their shields had been replaced with an umbrella,

a body-board, a poster of President Obama, a baseball glove,

and a traffic cone.

They stared in disbelief, raising their guns, only to see

those guns taken from their hands. The soldiers squinted in

disbelief. On the ground, waving the guns around were

groups of red-faced, angry trolls.

Now unarmed, the riot police clung together, watching

with horror as their rifles danced around on the floor, being

controlled by miniature soldiers.

Amy could see the Vykoids were laughing, and one of

them was firing stones from a catapult at incredible speed.

Barely bigger than gravel, the stones stung the faces and hands

of the troops. Every time they tried to move, more of their riot

gear was taken from them.

Amy gestured for Oscar to duck out of sight behind a tree.

'Vykoids...' she whispered. 'There's an army of them out

there.'

Oscar's jaw was set. 'Are they gonna shoot?'

Amy shook her head. 'They don't want to kill anyone. But

they're going to do something far worse. We've got to stop

them.'

Oscar stood bolt upright. 'I'll go tell the riot squad about

them!'

Amy yanked him back by his belt. 'No! I meant we've got

to stop the police. You've got to listen to me. We can't just

charge in there, they can do

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amazing things to you, I haven't time to explain. Just believe

me.'

Oscar was obviously torn. Amy could sympathise - his

colleagues were under siege and he wasn't about to stand by

and watch them be humiliated. Before Amy could say

anything more, Oscar stepped out into the crossroads.

'Whoever you are,' Oscar called out, 'I don't care if we can't

see you, I'm here now, and as long as you can see me, you

better bet, you're not getting nothing from the city. Do you

hear me? I said: Do you hear me?'

Buoyed by his upbeat voice, the struggling officers

shrugged off their unseen attackers, and gave Oscar a tiny

cheer. Amy wondered if she'd been wrong. Perhaps this was

Oscar's chance to become a hero after all.

But then the square filled with what only Amy could make

out to be the sound of hundreds of mini soldiers laughing.

They'd not been put off by Oscar's speech - they found it

hilarious.

Amy watched in horror as she saw all the Vykoid troops

turn away from the quaking riot police to descend on Oscar.

Seeing them advance, Oscar put his hand up to signal a halt.

His jaw dropped in amazement - his black NYPD gloves had

been replaced with pink lacy ladies gloves, sparkling with

Swarsovski crystals.

'What?' As Oscar brought his hands together to

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take off the gloves, his baseball cap was suddenly swapped

for a pink tiara. He tried to draw his baton, but pulled out a

fairy wand. Its tiny bells tinkled as, unable to stop his

movement, he waved the wand at the watching soldiers.

The Vykoid troops were doubled up with laughter. It was

as if they'd never seen anything as funny as Oscar trying to

take them all on.

With increasing horror, Amy realised that, since they

moved at lightning speed, Oscar would seem to be moving

slower than a tortoise in treacle to the Vykoids. Each of his

gestures would take up several minutes of time as the Vykoids

experienced it. In the time it would take Oscar to click his

fingers, Amy thought, the Vykoids could easily run up and

down his body and do whatever they wanted.

As if to confirm the theory, two marker-pen-wielding

Vykoids spent a few seconds of Oscar's time drawing a pair

of comedy glasses round his eyes and a fake moustache that

curled out from under his nose right up his cheeks.

'Stop it now!' Oscar yelled. 'I'm an officer of the New

York Police Department, and I will not be played with!'

Unfortunately for Oscar, his authority was undermined by

the Vykoids stealing his trousers. Oscar stood in the middle of

New York, in his spotty boxers, pink lace gloves and pink

tiara, and listened to the sound of tiny aliens laughing. Amy's

hand

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went to her mouth as she struggled not to laugh herself.

'Not funny,' she muttered. 'So not funny.'

Despite the circumstances, Oscar seemed determined no t

to beat a retreat. He went for his gun, and this time he

seemed to have got the better of the speedy tyrants. He took

aim at the Vykoid troops.

'Halt! Be aware that I will shoot. As a real and presen t

danger to the safety of New York, I am arresting you...'

Oscar tailed off. The Vykoids were still laughing at him.

One of them put a hand up and, speaking very slowly,

asked Oscar, 'Can I have a drink, officer?'

They all burst out laughing again, harder than ever.

Oscar stared at his hand in shock. While he'd been talking,

they'd replaced his gun with a water pistol.

He fired anyway. In the same instant, a police riot shield

appeared between him and the Vykoids, and the water

splashed back in his own face.

'I will not surrender to you!' Oscar fumed, as a short

miniskirt appeared around his legs.

Amy watched in frustration. She wished he'd listened to

her, instead of playing the hero. She couldn't let herself be

captured, and was helpless on the sidelines as the Vykoids

moved in on Oscar.

'Stay behind the line!' Oscar shouted.

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The Vykoids didn't listen. As they spread around him,

Oscar turned in a circle, trying to keep his eyes locked on the

creatures. Like hummingbirds' wings, they became blurs of

movement on the ground, zooming around Oscar's ankles.

'I said stop!'

It was too late. A cord tightened around Oscar's ankles.

'Focus, Oscar!' Amy shouted. She had an idea, but he'd

have to be quick. 'Stand on one leg, and move the other round

as fast as you can!'

Oscar probably didn't have a clue what Amy was trying to

do, but he kicked his left leg high in the air, and waggled it as

fast as he could.

As high up as you can get it.’ Amy yelled.

With obvious difficulty, Oscar pulled his leg right up into

the air.

Amy's hope was that, in Vykoid time, Oscar now presented

them with a technical challenge. They needed to tie his legs

together to trip him up or secure him, but the left leg was now

too far away for an easy fit. Undeterred, the Vykoids

continued to methodically secure their ropes to his right leg,

and sent a second team to attach the cords to his left leg, far

away, but moving very slowly towards them.

'Now! Swap over, and kick!' Amy screamed, talking as

fast as she could, desperate to avoid the Vykoids hearing her

plan before Oscar.

Some of the Vykoids on the right leg realised

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what was happening and started to scarper, but Oscar kicked

out, ripping all the ropes from the Vykoids hands and

sending a few stragglers flying off into the air.

'Somersault!' Amy commanded.

Oscar froze.

Amy shouted again. 'Forward roll, then.'

Oscar did as he was told and, moving forward like a

human woodlouse, he reached Amy. It seemed he was too

awkward and too mobile a shape for the Vykoids to have any

way of holding him, and the Vykoids signalled a retreat.

There were more and easier targets than Oscar, no matter

how much fun he was to tease.

'I'd lend you some of my clothes, Oscar,' Amy said, 'but

I'm not sure I'd wear a skirt that short.'

Oscar hugged her with relief. 'How did you do that?' he

asked.

Amy shrugged. 'I guess I pick things up being around the

Doctor. Also,' she said with a smile, 'you weren't getting

anywhere by yourself, so I thought I should chip in.'

Oscar's face fell as he looked across the square. While

they'd been occupied, the Vykoids had moved in on the riot

police. There was not a single NYPD officer left on the

crossroads.

'They'll be OK, Oscar,' Amy reassured him. 'The Vykoids

don't want to hurt them.'

Amy didn't tell Oscar that they were going

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to be taken to an alien planet to mine Space-Boar droppings.

She didn't want him doing anything stupid. Again. She told

him to go and wait in one of the empty police trucks.

With the scene now clear, Amy walked to the middle of

the crossroads and picked up the torch and truncheon the

Vykoids had taken from Oscar. Her heart skipped a beat

when she saw Oscar's gun lying on the ground. She picked it

up, surprised by how heavy and cold it felt. She knew the

Doctor wouldn't want her to use it, and she knew in her heart

that he was right. But all the other police officers had been

taken. Commander Strebbins's crack troops had disappeared,

leaving their high-tech vehicles and weapons idling

uselessly on the tarmac.

Amy had to admit that the Vykoids had been true to their

word. In everything she'd seen, not a soul had been seriously

harmed. Teased, yes. Beaten up, a little bit. Kidnapped, and

taken as slaves, certainly. But the Vykoids weren't murderers.

This left Amy with a dilemma. She was standing at a

crossroads in New York with a gun in her hand. She couldn't

just leave it there for anyone to find, and she didn't want to

give it back to Oscar...

She walked over to Oscar, who had wrapped himself in a

blanket, hiding his legs from the world. The pink gloves and

tiara were on the passenger seat of the troopers' vehicle.

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'Why did you get rid of those?' Amy teased him. 'It was a

good look.'

Oscar smiled. 'I can't thank you enough.'

He was going to go on, but Amy interrupted. 'First thing,

you're not having this back.' She popped the chamber out of

the gun and emptied the bullets into her hand. She wandered

over to a drain cover, intent on dropping the bullets down

into the dark.

As she reached into her pocket, her fingers touched the

psychic paper. On an instinct, she took it out - and saw a

message:

Oi! I'm down here!

Amy's heart leapt with joy. It was the Doctor. The writing

on the psychic paper was faint, but then it clearly changed:

I'm below you!

Amy looked from side to side. All she could see were

grand department stores, interrupting a steady line of

doughnut shops and takeaway coffee stands. A gush of hot air

disturbed the ever-present pigeons and they fluttered into the

dark sky.

'What's down there?' Amy asked, pointing to vents in the

pavement.

Oscar shrugged. 'The Subway. There'll be people trapped

down there...'

"That's it!' Amy thought. 'The Vykoids have taken the

Doctor underground...' She turned back to Oscar. 'Why do

you have a Green Globe to show it's a subway?' she

protested. 'Couldn't it just say

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"SUBWAY" in big letters?'

Leaving Oscar on the sidewalk, she rushed to the entrance.

'And don't you start asking me to buy a ticket, I am so

jumping the barriers.'

Oscar shouted out after her. 'I'd better come with you. It

isn't safe at this time of night.'

Amy held up her hand to stop him, and said firmly. 'I'll be

fine by myself. It's not the crazy New Yorkers on the Subway

I'm worried about right now. Thanks for the help.'

Oscar looked embarrassed. Not only had he had his face

drawn all over by tiny aliens from another planet, but now

even girls in peril were refusing his help.

Amy smiled. 'Ahem, whole city in danger. You're the only

cop to have avoided being captured. I think they're going to

need you up here, don't you?' Oscar was wavering, so she

ploughed on.' I need you up top. Whatever Strebbins is

planning, you need to stop it. The more men she sends out,

the more people she's giving to the Vykoids.'

Oscar still hesitated, and Amy felt touched by his

old-fashioned chivalry.

'C'mere.’ she gestured to him. 'You've been brilliant. Just

don't think of me as an ordinary girl and that'll put your

mind at rest. Thanks for your help.'

Amy planted a big kiss on his cheek. He blushed, and Am y

laughed, 'From now on, though, just

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remember, what you city slickers need is a small-town girl to

show you how to do it!'

With that, Amy zipped off, running down the steps to the

Subway station:

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Chapter

13

Inside the Subway station, it was dark and gloomy. With all the

New Yorkers safely inside their homes, the platform looked

neglected and sad. From what Amy could see, the

ticket-booth attendants and guards had long abandoned their

posts.

Amy peered inside the empty ticket booth, and tried the

door marked 'Staff'. Everything was locked up, and there was

no sign of the Doctor. She made her way to the platform, but

realised there were very few places left to look. However much

she hated the idea, she realised there was only one way for her

to go - along the tunnel itself. She stared at the psychic paper,

hoping for guidance, but it was still glowing with the same

message: I'm below you.

Was the Doctor was a little bit psychic, she

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wondered. Maybe it wasn't just the paper that could read

minds; perhaps he could do it as well. That would explain

how he was able to appear so clever all of the time - if he just

read the mind of the person he was talking to and said

everything they knew back at them.

Just at that moment, she thought, she could have done with

something a little more helpful than I'm below you. Left or

right? She didn't even know that much. If the Doctor was in

danger, she probably had very little time, and going the

wrong way might mean she got there too late. But how could

she be sure?

Only one thing for it. She closed her eyes tightly, imagined

the Doctor, used all she could to reach out for him with her

mind...

... No. She felt nothing. Amy felt a bit stupid for even

trying, and also pleased. She didn't like the idea of the Doctor

being able to see inside her mind.

The decision remained. Left or right? If only something

could make her choose.

The low growl made her jump. Amy opened her eyes to

see an urban fox stalking out of the dark, its eyes glowing

eerily blue in the shades of the station.

That made her mind up. She leapt onto the tracks and

headed off to her left, away from the angry fox, walking to

downtown New York the unconventional way. With all of

the power in New

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York out, Amy had to move slowly, feeling her way through the

gloom. Oscar's torch could show her the tracks ahead, but the

gaping blackness of the runnel beyond was a forbidding

mystery, and Amy had no idea what she'd find in the dark, or

who might be trying to stop her getting to the Doctor.

Part of Amy wondered how she was going to save the

Doctor when she got there - but she knew she had to try. She'd

seen the Doctor come up with clever plans on the spur of the

moment and thought to herself that she'd be as brilliant as him if

she had the opportunity to do it. But nagging away at her was

how helpless she'd been when Oscar was being tormented by the

little midgets. Still, she'd got him out in the end. At the moment

the score was Amy Pond one, Vykoids nil.

The psychic paper glowed again and Amy eagerly opened it

to see the message.

If you can see this, you're going the right way. If you can't see this,

then.. Oh, haven't really thought that one through, have I?

Amy laughed. The message faded and then a new message

came back onto it:

and HURRY UP!

This was quickly followed by:

PLEASE.

Amy started to move off, but the paper glowed yet again:

Actually, ignore me, psychic link a bit hard to control,

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so I may well be wittering on a bit, but anyway, less reading, more

running!

Amused at his cheek, Amy hurried along the dark tracks

into the unknown. As her eyes got used to the dark, she could

make out more of her surroundings. The glossy posters and

adverts soon gave way to cracked plaster and crumbling

bricks, curving close above her head, with strange drips of

water and curious green stains. Sometimes the runnel was

close in around her; at other times it seemed cavernous and

impenetrable in the gloom.

Not that Amy wanted to look too closely. Wherever the

beam of her torch fell, Amy could see little furry black

creatures scuttling out of the way. Rats. She told herself they

were probably friendly ones. Like the one in Leadworth

Primary School that they used to take home at weekends

(until Ian's cat killed it). He was called Ratty, and the boys in

class had liked to set him running up and down the girls'

necks.

Amy hadn't been scared then, and it would take more than

rats to put her off her mission now. She thought to herself

how funny it was that in all the games she used to play when

she was 8 years old, the Raggedy Doctor had been the one

saving her from mean boys and scary rats. Now she was

having to go through a dank, vermin-infested tunnel to save

him. Amy's amusement didn't last long, as she realised she'd

probably always suspected this was

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going to be the case. It was clear from the moment they met

that he'd needed Amy Pond to sort out his life for him.

The tunnel opened out, and her torch showed a row of

sidings that stretched out into the gloom. Parked up near to

the line was an empty Subway train, standing idle on the

tracks. For some reason seeing it sent shivers down her

spine. It was like a ghost ship, or a haunted house. Something

designed to be full of people felt wrong when it was quiet and

so dark. It should be taking New Yorkers all the way to

Coney Island, not sitting silent and still in the shadows.

The train looked far bigger and more mechanical from

track level, and Amy hurried past. Unknown to her, a little

pair of eyes peered out at her as she crept past. To the

watching Vykoid's tiny ears, her timid footsteps sounded

like the clunking boots of an unwieldy giant.

The tunnel was less flat than Amy expected. Above

ground, New York may have been divided up into neat grids

and numbered streets, but underneath the city the Subway

sloped and twisted as it made its way from place to place.

The psychic paper glowed again.

Are you still there, Amy?

Wondering if he genuinely expected an answer, Amy

looked up along the tunnel and saw a glow of light around the

next bend. She raced forward,

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running out into a vast Subway station. Brand new and

shiny, this was part of the Mayor's regeneration scheme, and it

looked posher than most buildings in Leadworth. The space

was dimly lit with hundreds of tiny lamps, no bigger than

pencil sharpeners.

Amy approached slowly and carefully. Straining her eyes,

she could see that the floor of the huge platform looked

bumpy and uneven. As she moved closer, the torchlight

revealed the true nature of the bumps. All along the platform,

people had been tied up and covered with blankets.

Hauling herself up off the tracks, Amy crouched down

beside the nearest person. His legs had been bound, and there

was a gag in his mouth. Panic rose in Amy. Everywhere she

looked people were lying, trussed up. The Vykoids were using

this as a storage for captured humans.

A set of doors swung open, and Amy hit the ground, fast.

Just in time. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see a

blur of colours and high-pitched grunts of exertion as the

Vykoids dropped off another load of people.

Their methods were extraordinary. A team of Vykoids

would carry in a body, and lay it down for trussing by a

separate group. They worked like mechanics at a Formula

One pit stop. The team specialising in tying the gags around

the prisoners' mouths would take a piece of cloth five times

longer than they were, and spread it out like they were

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shaking a sheet. Then they gently lowered it over the mouth,

and a separate Vykoid tied a knot behind the head.

Meanwhile, a second team tied a cord around each hand and,

attaching it to a miniature Vykoid crane, hauled each hand

until they were floating together, zombie-like above their

captive's chest.

On a signal, both hands were dropped and a waiting

team of Vykoids snapped a long chain cord tightly around

it. This looked like the most dangerous part of the operation,

and Amy imagined that every Vykoid dreaded being

responsible for cuffing the giants. The feet were taken care

of by two teams of Vykoids on mini-bulldozers. They had

attached special jaws to the bulldozers and, facing each

other, the two bulldozers gradually pushed the ankles

together. Occasionally they paused and shouted out for

someone to throw more ball bearings under the ankles so they

would move more easily.

Once the prisoner's feet had been pushed tight together,

a mesh of nettings was dropped over the ankles, and sealed

together with some sort of heat gun.

After they'd been trussed up, the bodies were shunted

along to a freshly scrubbed section of platform where

white-coated Vykoids opened the eyelids of the prisoners,

and dropped something into their eyes, with tiny pipettes. It

took two Vykoids to hold each pipette, which looked like

cannons in their little hands.

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Amy wasn't sure, but she thought she saw them take a lunch

break during all this. And had she seen a visit from what looked

like an inspector with a clipboard, or was she just cracking up

under the pressure? Maybe he was a Union Rep, checking up

on the minutes they'd been working, and that Health and Safety

regulations were being followed.

'Wow!' Amy thought. They've been waiting thousands of

years, and they've been planning all that time.'

She watched in awe, as twenty-five people were processed in

this way in under a minute, then neatly tucked under blankets. It

was as if they wanted to keep the prisoners as safe and warm

as possible. Amy remembered what the Doctor had said the

captured people would be used for, and shuddered in horror.

Everyone around her was about to be taken to a faraway planet.

They would never again see their families or eat a doughnut or

drink an expensive takeaway coffee.

As soon as the Vykoids left, Amy started to untie the man

next to her. He was a big bloke, still wearing his dirty work

clothes and a high-visibility jacket. He was clearly a builder,

dragged away from some night-time work site. Tearing off his

gag, Amy saw that he was fast asleep, breathing calmly, and

actually snoring a little. The drops she'd seen the Vykoids put

in their eyes were probably keeping them out of it, Amy

thought. And if the Vykoids

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were finding it that easy to process a big man like him, what

chance did the rest of New York have? By the time the sun

rose, New Yorkers would have been stolen from their beds

and trussed up like Thanksgiving turkeys.

Another of the bodies seemed to move. Treading carefully,

but still making a few people squirm as she stepped on them,

Amy made her way towards it. With delight, she saw that it

was the Doctor.

'Oh, here you are.’ she told him. 'You could have been

kidnapped to a luxury bar, or maybe the sixth floor of Macy's.

But no. You chose a disgusting sewer. Again. Shall we take a

minute to reflect? They caught you. Here I come, Amy Pond,

saving the day!' She took the gag off the Doctor's mouth.

'Second thoughts, I could get used to this.' She put it back on.

'Only joking! I wouldn't leave you like this. Or would I?'

Amy loved the way his face went slightly flushed when he

was on the back foot. She pulled the gag from his mouth

again, and the Doctor looked so pleased she thought he was

about to kiss her.

'Amy Pond! Never have I been so glad to see you!'

Amy leant in closer. 'What is that you have stamped on

your face?'

The Doctor winced. 'Funnily enough I can't tell... Can you

untie my leg?'

Amy was too busy looking at the writing on his

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DOCTOR WHO

forehead. 'Now that is good, that is priceless. I told you you

were skinny. Even the pint-sized invaders agree!'

Written on the Doctor's forehead, in tiny red letters, was:

'Suitable for light manual labour only.'

Reaching through the gloop, Amy untied the Doctor's feet

and retrieved the sonic screwdriver from a box, where it had

been labelled 'Possible rock-cutting tool.'

As soon as he was free, the Doctor started on Amy: 'You

took your time! I was the first one they brought down here,

now look at everyone here.'

Amy raised an eyebrow, not willing to be knocked off

course by the Doctor. 'Ahem, avoiding the obvious here... I.

Rescued. You. I think you better get used to it, Doctor,

because you're going to see a whole lot more saving from me

now I've got my alien-fighting moves.'

Shaking his legs back awake, the Doctor did a funny little

dance to the side of the platform and pointed down. 'How

come the Subway's turned off?' he asked.

'Yeah, I was getting to that. They've turned all of New York

off. Those troll-faced ant-men have killed the power to the

whole city.'

'Why would they do that?' the Doctor wondered. "They're

tiny, they can move fifty times faster than everything else on

Earth - and they're collecting humans in Subway stations.

Why, why, why? They're

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like an army of angry little hummingbirds, an army of

vengeful, speedy, collector hummingbirds, an army of cruel,

kidnapping, and murderous hummingbirds... No, your

description was better.'

'I think a thank you is in order, don't you? It's all I want. I

know you want to say it as well. I'll be gracious. Just try me.

OK, maybe I'll be more crowing and happy. But I'll certainly

enjoy how it feels. So go on!'

But the Doctor was looking around the platform, like his

mind was reaching out for something that it could understand

but not quite explain.

'Look at the lift,' he whispered.

The indicator above the doors showed the lift was heading

down towards them. The Doctor signalled back down at the

dark track. 'Come on, we better go this way. They'll be down

with another batch soon.'

'Will they be OK?' Amy asked, looking at the sleeping

New Yorkers, dreaming away, unaware of their fate.

The Doctor raised his sonic screwdriver, and the lift

sparked and spluttered. 'We'll be back. I won't leave them.

But we've got far more to find out, before we can stop the

Vykoids.'

They leapt down to the track and headed back in the

direction Amy had come from. Back into the gloom and dark,

but away from the prying eyes of the Vykoids.

As they ran down the tracks, Amy started

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laughing again. 'Suitable for light labour only - that is so

funny. Even the Vykoids think you're a wimp.'

The Doctor looked hurt. 'You don't have to go to the

gym three times a day and be all muscle and cropped hair to

be a force to be reckoned with.’ he protested.

Amy couldn't help but laugh. 'Little hint: my kind of action

hero doesn't straighten his bow tie when he's trying to

explain how good he is in a fight.'

They walked on in silence for a minute, both looking

around them all the time for signs they were being

watched, until Amy decided the Doctor had suffered enough.

'How did this work, then?' Amy waved the psychic

paper at him. 'And couldn't you have been a bit clearer?'

'It's clever stuff, psychic paper. I set up an active

conscious connection, very dangerous for some people,

shows them what they're thinking. Plus side, it's a brilliant

way to get a message to someone. If the Atraxi can send a

message from their prison to Leadworth, then I can send

one through a few metres of soil. Well, mainly concrete,

this is New York. You were never that far away, just

twenty metres up.' The Doctor was smiling and pointing

upwards.

'What happened to you?' Amy asked.

'They dragged me here. Lucky I have these boots on. They

actually stapled my trousers together. I

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had some kind of sedative drops put into my eye. Handily, I

managed to rinse most of it out, before I got knocked out

properly. I just had a quick doze...’

Amy was intrigued. 'Rinse it out? You mean you cried?

The Doctor with his TARDIS and 900 years of facing

beasties, actually had a good old cry when the ant soldiers got

you!'

The Doctor was flustered. 'I didn't cry because I was

scared... It was the only way to get rid of the tranquilliser.'

But Amy was enjoying this, and wasn't about to give up.

'Go on, tell me! What did you think about to make you sad?

Was it me all alone out there, I bet it was!'

'I was being dragged by my hair through the New York

Subway.’ he told her. 'I didn't need to think of anything.

Also, how come no one helped me?'

'New York on a Saturday night,' Amy said sagely. I suppose

they'd already seen a man dressed like a geography teacher

riding a mammoth through the streets.'

'What is it with you and the bow tie, Amy? Bow ties are

cool!'

Amy shook her head. 'It is definitely a cry for help.'

Something was glowing in her pocket. She reached in

and took out the psychic paper. 'What's this?'

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The Doctor kept on walking. 'Ah, sorry, I've still got the link

in place. I'll break it off now.'

But Amy had already opened the paper, and saw a message in

bold letters:

SOMETHING IS COMING.

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Chapter

14

'Doctor!' Amy screamed.

Through the dark of the Subway tunnel, she could hear a

runaway train hurtling straight towards them.

She looked desperately around her, but they were in one of

the narrower parts of the tunnel, and they had nowhere to go.

'Run!' the Doctor yelled.

Amy turned to flee, but felt the Doctor's hand on her shoulder.

'Not that way.’ he shouted. 'The Vykoids are there.'

'What?' Amy screamed. 'You want me to run towards the

train?'

The Doctor looked back towards the oncoming

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DOCTOR WHO

train, now on the final stretch, and then straight into Amy's

eyes. 'Trust me!'

Amy nodded. If she knew one thing, it was that she was

always going to follow this man, wherever he wanted her to

go.

The front of the train suddenly looked enormous. It was

gathering pace as if the track tilted downhill. Amy was sure

she could hear high-pitched cackles of laughter.

Just as it seemed the train would hit them, Amy felt the

Doctor grab her and throw her into a shallow cubbyhole. She

pressed up tight to the wall, as the Doctor shouted, 'Breathe

in!'

With a giant clanging of machinery and metal, the

runaway train came ever nearer.

The back of Amy's head was pushed against the wall.

She could feel the rush of dirty hot air, and the smell of

grease on steel as the front of the train skimmed past them.

The skin on Amy's nose tingled as the glass and metal

rushed past her, bare millimetres from her face.

Amy was sure she could make out tiny Vykoid figures

racing along behind the train, looking disappointed not to

have made Pond-and-Doctor Jam out of them.

'This is why you should never walk on train lines...' the

Doctor said. He smiled at Amy and shone his sonic

screwdriver above them. 'Still. At least it woke me up

properly. Now, I'll give you a

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leg up - you need to grab that ladder up there.'

'Hey. Thank you, Doctor. My kind of action hero.'

The Doctor gave Amy a quick hug. 'You're the best, Pond.

Now hurry up.'

With an almighty shove, Amy dislodged the manhole

cover and flipped it out onto the street. Her head popped up

like a ferret out of hole, and she surveyed the streets of New

York.

'Ah, New York!' the Doctor exclaimed, hauling himself

out after Amy. 'This is how it should be. All shops and

doughnuts and pretzels, not rats and subways. I spent far too

long underground last time I was here.'

They were outside Macy's on Fifth Avenue. But

something was wrong. The shop windows had been smashed

by looters, and the streets were deserted. There was no sign

of the impromptu parties Amy had seen. Driven inside by

fear, the blocks now resembled cold-war Eastern Europe.

Imposing buildings, but a frightened city, scared of something

they couldn't see and would never understand.

Amy was upset at how much the streets had changed.

'They were all having parties in the streets. Why are they so

easy to scare off? If they just stood firm they'd be OK, those

Vykoids are only wee...'

The Doctor nodded grimly. 'Fear of the invisible enemy,

Amy. It can reduce anyone to weakness.'

'But what can we do?' Amy protested. 'It's not

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DOCTOR WHO

meant to be like this! New York is all cocktails and glamour,

not glass on the streets and people too scared to leave their

flats.'

'Nah, it's like this most of the time. They love it, though.

Tough bunch, New Yorkers. They like a city to feel edgy...

Dropped by in 1829, and you should have seen the place -

the Plug Ugly gang were tearing into the Dead Rabbit gang

- all over Five Points. My fault, I didn't notice what was going

on. We all sat down over a pack of Jammy Dodgers, and

sorted it out. Well, it was either that or I sent them all back

to Sligo. They soon saw sense.'

'I bet.'

'And I bet you're wondering what my plan is? Don't look

at me like that. Of course I have one -head full of plans,

me. And what I'm about to tell you is that of all the courses

of action to take for fighting super-fast aliens, the most

important thing is to-'

'Stop them moving so fast.’ Amy cut in. 'Exactly what I

was going to say.'

When they first encountered the Vykoids, Amy recalled,

they'd been moving at normal speed, like tiny versions of

people. It was only after the ripple of light had passed over

them that the aliens had begun to move so fast. Surely it was

impossible for anything to move at that speed. It was

certainly going to be hard for anyone to stop the Vykoids

from doing whatever they wanted.

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'But we need to do more than that.’ Amy pointed out. 'New

York is in serious danger. No electricity, no cars, no phones,

no internet. We're cut off from the outside world, and we've

only got a few hours before all of New York is taken to work

as slaves.'

The Doctor smiled. 'Let's go to work, then.'

Amy grinned at her action man.

The Doctor turned back and smiled like a schoolboy.

'Always wanted to say that. Something about being in

America makes it cooler, don't you think?'

Amy just about stopped herself from laughing outright.

'You wish!'

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Chapter

15

The main offices of the NYPD were lit with emergency storm

lanterns, hurriedly dug out of storage. Even though it was the

middle of the night, the place had never been so busy. Every

single police officer in New York had been called in and,

when all the communications had gone down, Commander

Strebbins had insisted that they stay there so they were at her

immediate command.

Inside her dark office, twelve breathless cadets stood in

front of Strebbins. She had set up binoculars by the window to

scan the dark city outside, and there was an enormous map of

the streets of Manhattan spread on the table in front of her. As

they spoke, she added pins into the map, building up a picture

of what was happening in the city.

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DOCTOR WHO

Strebbins gave each cadet exactly thirty seconds to report,

then moved on to the next, regardless of how far they'd got in

their explanations. The digital cameras she'd given them

hadn't worked. It seemed that every single electrical item in

New York had been disabled. With no pictures, Strebbins

was snapping pencils in half, adding piles of destruction to

indicate where the roads had been blocked.

'Let me get this straight.’ she summarised. 'So far the

roads out of action are Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge,

Williamsburg Bridge, Midtown Tunnel, Queensborough

Bridge, Triborough Bridge, Third Avenue Bridge, 145th Street

Bridge, you didn't go any further north, but it's safe to assume

the rest are closed as well. And on the East we have Holland

Tunnel, Lincoln Tunnel, George Washington Bridge, Henry

Hudson Bridge. All closed by a massive blockade of debris.

You say it was piles of street lamps, park benches, smashed

up cars and advertising boards?'

A cadet nodded. "They go across both lanes of every

bridge I saw.'

Strebbins wasn't interested in the details and continued

speaking to the room. 'Every single way in and out of the city

is closed off?'

The cadets nodded in assent.

Strebbins was being very careful not to appear angry at

their incompetence. 'And not one of you has any idea who

did this?'

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This time the nervous cadets took longer to answer.

Impatient at their delay, Strebbins dismissed them without

further question.

'My real men are out on the streets, they'll get this sorted.

Might as well go home, the lot of you.'

One woman didn't leave with the rest of the cadets.

Strebbins recognised the young woman as Yaara Stein, one

of the more promising cadets.

'What is it?' Strebbins asked.

Yaara shuffled her feet nervously. 'Ma'am. I saw no troops

on the streets.'

'What?' Strebbins was incredulous.

'I'm sorry, Commander,' Yaara went on quickly. 'But I saw

six abandoned armoured vehicles at the exit to Brooklyn

Bridge. I searched inside, but there were no signs of

casualties.'

Strebbins eyed Yaara carefully. She'd read some of her

carefully composed reports and knew she wasn't one to

exaggerate or spread stories without reason. 'Are you telling

me that my men are going missing?' Strebbins asked.

'From what I saw, ma'am, yes.'

Strebbins turned her back on Yaara and walked to the

black windows, staring onto the streets below. They were

twenty-three storeys up, and she had a perfect view of the

streets below.

Yaara appeared at her shoulder, and handed her a pair of

binoculars. 'Ten units were deployed to City Hall, ma'am.

But, if you look...'

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All the way along Broadway the roads were silent. Park

Row was empty of patrolling troops.

'They're committed to reporting back every thirty minutes.

I'll hear soon. You can go now, Yaara.'

Commander Strebbins was deeply concerned. Either

every officer she had sent out was inside, pursuing the

unknown aggressor, or they'd been taken somewhere.

She'd thought she could cope without the gear of modern

policing, the mobile phones, radios and CCTV images. But

now the city was being stalked by an unseen menace, and

she was losing her officers.

Yaara was hovering by the door.

'What is it?' Strebbins asked.

'Ma'am, I want you to know that I'm happy to go back on

the streets. If that's what you want, that is. And I won't tell

the others.'

Strebbins looked at Yaara with increased respect. She was

glad she was working with such brave and dedicated people.

She came to a decision. Something was keeping New

Yorkers off the streets. But it wasn't her Martial Law or her

curfew. It was fear. And Commander Strebbins wasn't going

to let this go by unmarked.

'Yaara, call the rest of the cadets back in. We're going out

together. I want to see this for myself. I'm going to pull

together an armed unit so big and so strong there isn't

anyone big enough to take us on.'

*

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THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

Back in midtown New York, the Doctor and Amy were

standing in the Grand Hall of the Natural History Museum.

'Why are we here?' Amy asked. 'We need to get the city

back to normal.'

As soon as she had told him everything she'd discovered

from the police about the unveiling of the mammoth, the

Doctor had insisted they return to the Museum.

'I need to know, Amy, I can't not know. We need to find out

where the mammoth really came from.'

The Doctor seemed to know his way around the Museum,

and Amy followed as they took turn after turn, bowling

through doors marked 'Private' and 'Staff Only'.

'I used to come here quite a bit when it first opened,' the

Doctor said. 'Some of the stuff they dug up in the Gobi

desert! Far too unstable to put on display. My fault. I never

clean up after myself.'

Amy rolled her eyes. 'You are impossible!' she

complained. 'Is there anywhere you haven't been before?'

They reached a door with a plaque labelled 'S. Horwitz',

and the Doctor kicked it open, with a cheery 'Howdy!'

Inside was a small laboratory. A man and a woman

looked up in surprise.

'So which of you is S. Horwitz, mammoth-maker to the

masses, at least according to Amy's friends in

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the NYPD?' the Doctor asked.

The man put his hand up, like a guilty schoolboy. 'I'm Sam

Horwitz. And this is—'

Polly Vernon.’ the woman interrupted.

'You could at least look a bit pleased to see me!' the

Doctor said, grinning at them.

'Please don't arrest me.’ stammered Sam. 'It wasn't my

fault.'

The Doctor shushed him and said reassuringly, 'I

wouldn't do a thing like that, but no more hiding down here,

Sam. I need you.'

Sam shook his head, evidently confused. I saw you ridin g

the mammoth. I thought they'd locked you up... and you

were knocked out.'

'We saw you too, Matador Man,' Amy said. 'And you were

there with schoolchildren, weren't you?' she said to Polly.

'My class -1 teach at an elementary school.'

'Quite a place you've got here.' The Doctor looked

around the room as he talked, picking up bits of Sam's work

and scanning papers. 'I do love a test tube. Amy, don't press

that switch.'

Amy stopped fiddling with a wall panel, amazed as ever

that the Doctor could tell anything that she was doing, even

when he had his back to her.

The Doctor grabbed a chair, leapt onto it and put his feet

up on the table. 'So, let's talk mammoth...'

Amy cut in to ask, 'What did the scan show?'

'You don't know, do you?' the Doctor said to Sam.

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'That's odd, that's very curious.' His eyes flickered over every

detail of the paper he was looking at. 'Because this is a real

lab, and you're a real scientist, been to all the great academic

institutions, I see -Harvard, Yale, Aberystwyth...'

While he was talking, Polly got her mobile out, trying to

make a call.

The Doctor raised a finger to stop her. 'Ah, ah, ah, never

mind that, not that it works anyway. But I'm the Doctor, I'm

here to stop what was hidden inside that mammoth. So I need

to know. If you're a real scientist, Sam, then why couldn't you

tell that it wasn't a real mammoth?' As an aside he said to

Amy, 'And he seems to be human, no aliens inside his belly.

Or hers for that matter.'

Sam was spluttering with indignation. 'I don't know who

you are, or what kind of doctor you are, and I don't know

what you're suggesting. I am not part of any kind of hoax.'

The Doctor turned on his heels and made for the door.

'Thank you! That's all I needed to know.'

Sam stood up, confused. 'What do you mean?'

At the door, the Doctor turned to him. 'I scanned you,

you're definitely human, all the right things in all the right

places. Fear of being a failure, belief in the true nature of the

mammoth, and a totally enormous crush on young Polly

here.'

Amy grinned. 'You totally have to get together, you look

so sweet!'

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Sam blushed and shuffled slightly nervously.

Amy looked at the Doctor impishly. 'Can I?'

The Doctor nodded, and Amy ran up to Sam and knocked

gently on his belly. 'No secret hatches here! And nice work on

the abs may I say, you've got a keeper here, Polly.'

Amy winked at Polly, who exclaimed: 'You are both

quite mad.'

The Doctor swept back into the room. 'Thank you Amy,

we'll be off now, have a nice evening. I'd stay in, if I were you.

But Sam, stop me if I'm barking up the wrong tree here, but I

couldn't help noticing that secret map of the Dinosaur Oasis...

You didn't find anything else there, did you?'

Sam shook his head.

'And it wasn't buried that far down, really, was it?'

Again, Sam shook his head. 'I knew it looked wrong, but

every other detail was perfect. I thought maybe we'd made a

mistake in dating the age of the ice sheet.'

'Someone put the mammoth there to be found, Sam, and

now I know it wasn't you. We need your help. Next stage of

the investigation into the incident is going to be pretty tricky.'

Sam seemed to brighten at this. 'What, like me using m y

skills as a palaeontologist to analyse the beast and work out

what's happened - like they do in CSIT

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'CSZ: Prehistory.’ said Amy drily. 'The spin-off that's just

been waiting to happen since 65 million BC.'

There's something else at work here.’ the Doctor

continued, 'and you are going to be absolutely integral to our

success.'

Sam nodded, biting his lower lip nervously. 'Of course,

anything I can do to help. Polly, you better go straight home,

this could get dangerous.'

The Doctor looked disappointed. 'What? It's Polly that we

really need. Right now, Polly is the most important part of

the whole plan.'

Polly was stunned. 'Why me?'

The Doctor moved in close to her. 'You've got the one

thing that's going to help us stop whatever's doing this.

Children!'

The Doctor led them to the roof of the Museum. Sam and

Polly both gasped as they saw that New York had been

plunged into absolute darkness. The streets below them were

deserted.

'I've never seen the city so quiet.’ Polly said.

The Doctor pointed to the skies. I bet you've never seen

anything like that, either.'

Without the light from the buildings, the New York sky

was filled with hundreds of twinkling lights. The skyscrapers

seemed small in comparison to the vast size of the universe

above them.

Polly shook her head in disbelief. 'I've grown so

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used to seeing the night sky as an orange glow, I'd forgotten

how beautiful the stars are.'

'There's the Saucepan.’ Amy pointed out helpfully.

'I think it's called the Plough.’ the Doctor corrected her.

'Looks more like a saucepan to me.’ insisted Amy. 'Or an

axe. Do aliens live there as well?'

'They're almost entirely made of water, and so obsessed

with the weather. Very dull species. But that's not the point!

There are so many worlds and solar systems, out there, Polly

and Sam, things you wouldn't believe. And something very

bad and very frightening has come out of that mammoth.'

Polly stared at him. 'You're both mad. Whatever has done

this, the army or someone will stop them. I'm cold, it's late,

and I'm going inside.'

'Not this time, Polly.’ the Doctor told her gently. 'This

time, it's going to be us. The army didn't last five minutes

against them. Look down below, do you see anyone on the

streets? Anyone at all?'

Down on the streets below, not a single soul was moving.

'They've closed down the city.’ Sam said. 'It's best to wait

indoors.'

'Just look at New York.’ the Doctor said. 'Look. It's been

driven to despair by a force that no one can see and, instead

of fighting it, we're hiding. Last time I was in New York, I

met men who'd been

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beaten down and abandoned and ruined, but they were some

of the best and the bravest I've met. They had nothing left, but

they were prepared to give it all. They were brilliant. Anyone

who thinks they can win just because they're bigger and

richer is doomed to fail. We only have one thing left. But it's a

thing that will drive us on through the darkest of days to

defeat the deadliest enemies the galaxy can throw at us. We

are right.'

Polly and Sam were both listening attentively.

'People are disappearing from the streets,' the Doctor went

on. 'You can see it with your own eyes. You don't have to trust

me, but trust yourselves. You know the police should be on the

streets, but they've gone too. And that means it's something

very scary indeed. And what's worse, it's so hidden, we won't

even know what they're planning until it happens.'

'And if we help you?' Polly asked. 'What do you want?'

'The mammoth coming back to life wasn't a miracle. This

is an alien invasion, a very clever alien invasion. They're

rounding up the biggest and toughest New Yorkers that they

can find. So I need a team of people that can become invisible

to them. I need your class, Miss Vernon. Everyone gets a

chance to be a hero!'

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Chapter

16

Joe Hudson rubbed his eyes to check he wasn't dreaming. Four

people were standing on the fire escape outside his bedroom,

high up a New York Brownstone. His teacher, Miss Vernon,

the Mammoth-Man from the Museum, a girl with bright red

hair, and a man with a cheeky sparkle in his eyes and floppy

hair and a funny old jacket.

The man with the hair told him to open the window, and

Joe slid the pane up cautiously.

'Joe, I'm the Doctor. How do you fancy saving New York?'

Joe looked at the group appraisingly. 'Are you like Iron

Man?' He was 10 years old, and knew a fair bit about

superheroes.

'I'm exactly like Iron Man,' the floppy-haired

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man called the Doctor agreed. 'Only without the Iron. And I

have two hearts. So, actually nothing at all like him, now

you mention it, but that's not a problem, I'm better than him.'

'You don't even have a cape,' said Joe scornfully. He looked

at the red-haired girl. 'What's your special power?'

The Doctor smiled at him. 'That's Amy. And you really

don't want to know.'

Joe looked the Doctor up and down, eyeing him up for

telltale signs of a hidden superpower. 'So what have you

ever done, then? You're not like the Fantastic Four, are you?'

The Doctor smiled. 'Do you remember when all the clocks

went to zero?'

Joe looked interested. 'They said it was a computer fault.'

'No such thing. I was there, Joe. There were aliens on

Earth, and they were seconds away from destroying the

planet.'

Joe was wide-eyed with astonishment.

'I didn't do it alone,' the Doctor told him. I needed the

best people on the planet. That time it was Amy. This time it's

you.'

Part of Joe wasn't surprised. With all the things that had

happened over the last few years, he'd grown to believe there

was something else out there. His dad still talked of the time

he froze and started chanting, and nobody felt safe at

Christmas now.

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The Doctor put his face very near to Joe's and told him.

'There is far more out there than you could ever imagine. And

everything that's happened in New York today is because of

aliens. Will you help me?'

'Hell, yes!' said Joe, earning himself a disapproving look

from Miss Vernon.

That's my boy!' the Doctor grinned. Then, catching sight

of Amy's expression, he decided: 'I'm not saying that again.

Right, Joe, I've travelled through time and space, but right

now, the only thing that's going to stop this city falling apart

is you. I need someone so brave and so clever they can get

around the city without anyone noticing. Do you think you

can do that?'

Joe nodded, impressed that the Doctor was treating him

like a grown-up. 'What about my parents?'

'They'll be better off indoors. So come on, coat, boots,

whatever else you think you need to wear. Then I need you to

round up everyone in your class. You're going to be my eyes

and ears, Joe.'

As he clambered onto the fire escape, Joe looked at the

Doctor with the awe of a private addressing a general. 'Why

do you want me? Couldn't any of the others do it?'

The Doctor grinned. 'I asked Miss Vernon who was the

best-behaved boy in her class, and that so wasn't you. I need

someone naughty, a natural leader.'

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Joe wasn't sure whether this was a good thing or not but,

ready for adventures, he set off with the Doctor and his

friends.

As they walked away from the building, the boy talkin g

excitedly to the Doctor and Sam, Polly quietly asked Amy,

'So are you two dating?'

Amy scoffed at the question. 'Me and the Doctor? No way!'

Polly smiled. 'It's just you looked so together.'

Amy was shocked. She had no idea they looked like that.

Polly went on, 'You know, always laughing at his jokes,

and the way you look at him like you think he's going to save

the world every time he opens his mouth.'

Amy denied everything. 'Nah, he just needs me to keep

an eye on him, make sure he doesn't get stolen by any tin y

aliens again. I'm more of a Brad Pitt kind of girl. I'm not

really one for all that floppy hair.'

Polly smiled at Amy. 'Nice try!'

They walked on in silence, until a thought struck Amy.

'Doctor, you know the story of the Trojan horse. What

happened at the end? I can only ever remember the start of

it.'

'They murdered everyone in Troy, and let the

barbarians in through the gate,' the Doctor told her softly.

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'Oh.’ said Amy. 'I was always told we could learn from

history. Fat lot of good that was. I may as well have slacked off

on Friday afternoons.'

The Doctor grinned at Amy, 'Are you telling me you

didn't?'

After walking in his bare feet and boxers for what felt like

hours, Oscar made it back to base. With the lift out of action,

he climbed all twenty-three storeys and swung open the door

to an empty office. Everything was dark and quiet. His first

thought was that the Vykoids had taken everyone, but it all

seemed too neat. There were no signs of any kind of struggle at

all. Oscar walked back into Strebbins's office and saw a

handwritten note left on her desk:

"To whom it may concern. All units are on patrol. Investigating

reports of missing officers.'

Oscar hit the desk in frustration. This was exactly what Amy

had told him to stop. If the Vykoids took Strebbins and

everyone she'd taken with her, they'd soon have every officer

in New York tied up in the Subway. Not only that, but every

armoured car and armed response unit in Manhattan would be

out of action. New York would be cut off from the world and

without defence.

On the other side of the city, the Doctor was standing in Polly's

tiny apartment on Bleecker Street in Soho, talking to a group of

thirty 10-year-olds. All of them

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had seen the mayhem caused by the Vykoids, and had emerged

from their apartments eager to help the mysterious man and his

friends.

Joe had told his class that the man was called the Doctor, and

he was probably a bit like Bruce Wayne. Two of the boys had

come out dressed as Batman, keen to take their places as

protectors of the city.

'Let me tell you a story. Long ago, in the frozen Arctic

wastes, an alien army landed. Only now, thousands of years

later, it isn't a story. And the army is ready to attack.' The

Doctor looked round at them all seriously. 'And you are the last

line of defence for New York. You all saw the mammoth come

to life, and everything that has happened today is because of

the mammoth. The aliens are called Vykoids, they are seven

centimetres tall, and they move so fast they are almost impossible

to see. There is a high-intensity chronactic-delay vortex

affecting the city.'

Amy nudged him in the ribs and he turned to her. 'What?'

'In English, Time Lord.'

'Ah, yes, sorry there is a Time Freeze in place over New

York. Somewhere in the city, the Vykoids are broadcasting a

signal that is slowing everything else down. While we're

moving so slowly, they can do what they like to us. Amy saw

them steal a policeman's trousers and draw glasses on his face.'

Polly's class laughed, and the Doctor added: I

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guess it was quite funny of them, but never mind that. If we

can find the source of their signal and turn it off, then they

will be powerless to take us. They want to take every single

adult on Manhattan and make them their slaves. Out on the

streets you will see some things that will scare you, but don't

be afraid. They are only here to take the biggest and the

strongest. As long as you do as I say, you will be safe.'

The Doctor divided them up into pairs. 'You and you, and

you and you go together. You need to stay in the shadows

and keep your eyes open for anything out of the ordinary. All

power is down, so any light, and sign that something is

strange, you come straight back here. We need to be quick.

Take the city block by block.. .Now over to Polly....'

Polly stared at him, caught out. She whispered to the

Doctor, 'What do you mean?'

The Doctor explained 'Ah, should have told you, I need

them to spread out and check every tall building in New York,

go right to the top, and if they see anything that shouldn't be

there, they need to run straight back here, to tell us about it.

We won't be able to move far, the Vykoids will be on to us...'

'But there are hundreds of tall buildings in this city. That's

impossible.'

Amy interrupted. 'They need to start at the tallest first.'

'But it'll take ages,' Sam agreed.

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The Doctor joined in. 'Then I'm glad I've got the best team

in New York. OK, who's for the Empire State Building? Off

you go. Who's taking the Bank of America Tower? Right

you two. And Batmen, I need you both on top of the Flat

Iron. Take one of these each - you know what you need to

do!'

They all yelled back 'Yes!' and scuttled off pair by pair,

creeping like well-practised superheroes.

'What did you give them?' Amy asked.

'Fireworks! They're going to need to let us know where

they are.'

'And where did you get fireworks from?'

"This is New York, Amy, you can get anything here. New

Year for someone all the time, remember?'

Polly was looking worried. 'Are you sure they'll be safe?'

The Doctor answered straight away. 'The Vykoids have no

interest in them. Just make sure you stay out of sight

yourself. Whatever happens, don't leave your flat.' He leapt

up. 'Right, off to the Zoo!'

'Come on,' Amy told Sam. 'It's your turn to be helpful.'

'Don't worry.’ the Doctor said to Polly. 'We'll be barely a

few minutes. Well I say minutes. We'll actually be a couple

of hours, maybe even longer. But whichever way, I'll come

back for you, don't forget that.'

Outside, the Doctor asked Amy to pick a car. I’ll put it

back. I didn't do anything to the other one.'

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Sam was appalled. 'You can't just take someone's car!'

'Tomorrow I'll be the saviour of the city. That guy can

lend me his Dodge for a few minutes.'

Amy had another question on her mind. 'How come it's

not safe for Polly to be on the streets, but it's fine for me?'

The Doctor smiled. 'You're with me. Now come on, Sam.

It's time we took a proper look at that mammoth of yours...'

Sam Horwitz had never broken into anywhere before, so he

felt particularly naughty getting out of a stolen car and then

clambering over the hastily repaired service gates of the Zoo.

He'd spent most of his time studying long-dead animals, so

the sounds of the Zoo at night were strange and frightening

to him. Unlike the rest of New York, the animals were loving

how dark the sky was, and how quiet the Zoo had become.

Passing through the happily squawking enclosures, Sam

went straight to the mammoth's cage. Once inside the

enclosure, Sam felt incredibly sad. The mammoth he had

spent months slowly defrosting and caring for was split into

two pieces. While the top half still looked like an animal

you'd find in a school textbook, the lower half was a

cyberpunk fantasy of metal and technology. Sam squatted

down and gazed with the precision of a

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DOCTOR WHO

scientist at the inner workings of the man-made beast. He

was puzzled by how they'd managed to make it look and feel

so real, and pulled at the join between the metal.

Urrgggh! He stopped. The muscle was real. Some kind of

lab-grown synthetic meat, perhaps. It had oozed as he'd

pulled it back. Seen from the inside, the fur was obviously

fake. Everything about the hairs seemed real, but just under

the skin, was hard, flexible armour. The Vykoids had made

the mammoth far tougher than any other creature it might

meet.

The Doctor finished examining the tusks, and moved on

to the eyes.

"They did beautiful work here. A real cornea, plus

technology. It's not surprising you didn't spot it was a fake.

Now, Sam, as much as I love your approach, it's time to get

brutal. We need to make a bit of room in this thing. Can you

smash all of that out?' He was pointing to the gracefully

constructed central section of the mammoth.

Sam started carefully dismantling the Vykoid living

quarters that took up most of the beast.

'Er, Sam, tick-tock, tick-tock, time is the one thing we don't

have a lot of.'

Amy stepped in to help. 'I think what he means is do it

more like this...'

Kicking with her boots, Amy smashed a delicate level of

the Vykoid ship, sending the hand-crafted

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THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

construction skittering to the floor in tiny pieces.

Taking care to leave the controls in the head of the

mammoth untouched, Sam set about his work with a

vengeance. This was the mammoth that had ruined his

career, and he'd suddenly realised he was going to enjoy

taking it to pieces.

'Does he do this a lot?' he asked Amy.

'Well, I've never seen him with a mammoth before,' Amy

answered.

Sam loved that Amy had such spirit. Before he'd met th e

Doctor, Sam had been ready to hide from the world for ever,

content never to show his face in public again. But now he was

gleefully breaking into the City Zoo and dismantling an alien

spaceship. 'I meant, does he just not tell you what he's

planning to do,' he clarified.

'I know,' said Amy with a quiet smile.

'I guess he's doing this so the Vykoids can't leave,' Sam

suggested.

'Maybe. But it's more likely he doesn't know what he's

doing yet. Just has a kind of feeling for something...'

Sam wasn't entirely reassured by this.

His doubts grew even stronger when the Doctor stood

back from the mammoth, and asked, 'Enough room for a man

inside there yet?'

Sam told him there was, and the Doctor nodded. 'Go on

then.'

'Excuse me?'

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'In you get, Sam Horwitz.’

Amy watched Sam carefully. She could see him

struggling with his instincts. There was something so

compelling about the Doctor, she was fascinated to see the

effect he had on people.

'You want to shut me in there, don't you?' Sam guessed.

'No, that would be silly. I just want to see what happens

when you get inside.' The Doctor smiled at Sam. 'Of course,

now you say it, shutting you in for a bit could help us learn a

lot.'

Amy nudged Sam towards the door. 'Come on, in you go,

no time like the present.'

'You'll be out soon,' the Doctor assured him. 'In fact, th e

sooner you're in, the sooner you'll be out again.'

Unable to resist the lunatic logic, Sam found himself

doing something he'd never imagined. Putting his head up

into the chest of the mammoth, he hauled his body up on the

metal innards, nicking his legs up inside the space he'd

smashed out.

Below him, the Doctor and Amy took one side of the

mammoth's belly and lifted it high into position. Sam heard a

quiet click as it shucked into position. From the outside, he

guessed, the Polar Woolly Mammoth once again looked

very, very real.

But inside the dark of the mammoth, Sam was growing

increasingly angry. The Doctor had promised he'd be out

soon, but minutes were

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crawling past. He was hot, he was suffocating, and he was

furious that they had tricked him like this. Sam banged on

the metal belly, determined to smash his way out.

But nothing would budge. He shouted for them to release

him from his curious prison, but he heard no sounds outside.

For all Sam knew, they had left him there at the mercy of

the Vykoids. His mind raced at a hundred miles an hour, and

his anxiety spun out of control - what if the Vykoids came

back and found him in their ship? What would they do when

they saw what he'd done to it?

Finally after ten nervous minutes, Sam heard another

click, and the belly of the mammoth was disconnected. Sam

was so eager to get out, he stamped down on the metal, and

fell out in a sprawling mess, landing heavily on the floor of

the Zoo enclosure.

The Doctor and Amy were astonished.

'What's got into you?' Amy asked, upset that Sam was so

cross at them.

'You left me in there for ages!' Sam screamed, desperate

to get his frustration off his chest.

'That's interesting.' The Doctor was talking more to Amy

than to Sam. 'It's made of Vykoid technology. So it's immune to

the Time Freeze.'

'You were only in there for a minute.’ Amy explained,

'but we're all being slowed down by

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the Vykoids. In there you must have been going at normal

speed.'

'So this means we can fight them at their own speed!' Sam

exclaimed, realising that his ordeal had not been in vain.

'Yes,' the Doctor agreed. 'But only if we all get inside the

mammoth.'

'You cannot be serious?' Amy stared at the Doctor. 'You are,

aren't you? I should have known!'

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Chapter

17

Commander Strebbins was having a very bad night.

First, a mammoth had come alive, destroying the Grand

Hall of the most famous museum in New York. Then the city

had blacked out. Now she was losing units of men, all over

the city. Her decision to go onto the streets herself had been

popular with her officers. They had been scared by reports of

an unseen enemy, and were worried for their colleagues.

But now she was at the helm they felt protected. Patrolling

the streets like an American Boadicea, Strebbins had her

head poking out of the top of an armoured vehicle, surveying

all the damage to the streets as she went.

'Take me to City Hall.’ she hollered down to her

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driver. 'I want to see this for myself.'

The convoy rolled along the empty streets like an army

conquering a ghost town. Strebbins had never seen the city

like this, and she was determined to restore it to its roaring,

all-night-long self.

On the lawns of City Hall, Lieutenant Red of the Vykoid

army lowered a tiny telescope and smiled with triumph. He'd

seen their main prize - the human identified as running the

city, Commander Jackie Strebbins.

She was the woman who had put the city under Martial

Law. If they took her, they could do what they wanted. Red

signalled for his men to spread out across the road. Working

at top speed, they unrolled nets across every stretch of

sidewalk, and a specialised climber Vykoid ran a cord up to a

pivot point on the fifth floor of City Hall. Meanwhile, a team

of twenty Vykoids leapt into a human jeep and, with different

teams on each pedal, manoeuvred it into position. The trap

was set...

Strebbins pulled up in front of City Hall, the car jolting to a

stop to avoid a water main bursting a fountain over the

sidewalk. On her signal, the officers piled out of the back of

the van.

Yaara seemed immediately unnerved. 'Ma'am, there's

something on the road.'

Commander Strebbins was already climbing

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THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

down from her vantage point. 'I'm sure I've stepped on worse

in my time.’ she said drily.

But as her feet hit the ground, they stuck to it firmly. It

was as if her shoes were made of Velcro. She tugged and

yanked with all her might, but she couldn't move.

'Eyes all round!' Strebbins commanded, determined that

she would not be ambushed like this.

Somewhere close by, an engine fired up. A jeep zoomed

away from City Hall, pulling with it the cord that gathered up

the huge nets that Strebbins and her officers were standing on.

The nets had been designed to subdue a Tyrannosaurus

Rex, so Commander Strebbins didn't stand a chance. As either

side of the nets pulled up, the entire unit of armed police

officers was bundled together. Like rabbits caught in a trap,

they were dragged into the air, legs and arms poking through

the holes in the net. They were helpless.

Deep underground in a Subway station, General Erik

inspected the work of his Vykoid scientists. He'd been forced

to adapt his battle plan to the unfortunate mistiming of their

arrival, and he was more than happy with what he'd come up

with. His original mission had called for very few slave

workers to be captured. But if his new plan worked, he'd be

bringing home all of New York.

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When they'd discovered that their cryogenic sleep units

had malfunctioned and they'd woken up thousands of years

too late, he could have abandoned the mission and gone home.

He wouldn't have been blamed. Instead, he'd sent out a team

of Vykoids with a mission: find a human and force it to take

the mammoth to the greatest city on Earth. He'd faced a threat

of mutiny from the disgruntled soldiers eager to go home and

a vote of no confidence from the Vykoid Fleet Commanders,

but he'd persisted with his plan, and it had worked. However

powerful and well defended New Yorkers thought they were,

Manhattan was defenceless to a hidden enemy.

He signalled to the Chief Scientist with a brief wave of

his hand. 'Please begin.'

In a corner of the Subway station, the Vykoids had

assembled something that looked like a shower in a hippie

commune. They had constructed a man-sized chamber out

of bent copper pipes and elaborate woodwork built into the

wall.

Hauling on levers and pulleys, the Vykoids were lifting

something large into a standing position in the chamber. On

either side of the object, platforms of Vykoids waited to be

called into service. Waiting like paratroopers before a drop,

they had a hint of bullishness and anxiety, overridden by the

sense that this was their moment. After years of waiting

inside the mammoth, they were finally getting to put their

technology into action. It wasn't how they

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had expected to use it but, deep down, they knew it was going

to be a lot more fun.

Centuries of being frustrated by their size had led the

Vykoid race to become experts in building larger vehicles. But

even with the might of technology on their side, the universe

still refused to take them seriously and so, with the logic of

the conqueror, they had decided to use their machines to

subdue anyone that stood taller than them.

Their perfect machines of war had run amok through solar

systems and caused chaos across galaxies. All the time, the

best brains of the Vykoid race had been working long and

hard on a new and better solution to the problem of being tiny

in a world of oafs and gangly gargantuans. They had learnt

how to control the minds of larger animals, to take charge of

their every action.

A bright spotlight blazed onto the object in the Vykoid

conversion cubicle. It was Commander Strebbins, fast asleep

and tied upright to a wooden scaffold by hundreds of tiny

ropes.

Buzzing with adrenalin, Lars, a Vykoid private on his tour

of duty, hopped into a minute seat and saluted his

commander. The chair was packed with hundreds of controls.

At his left hand were dozens of buttons, and on his right a

carved Vykoid joystick.

The scientists around him backed away, and Lars shouted

out, 'Ready!'

With a dazzling manoeuvre, Lars was shot into

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DOCTOR WHO

the air to land squarely on the head of the NYP D

commander.

General Erik watched with satisfaction as Strebbins's left

eye opened halfway. Then her right eye jammed wide open

in a thousand-yard stare.

Lars radioed down to the command centre. 'I'm having

slight ocular control difficulties, sir.'

A Vykoid scientist spoke into a communicator. 'You're

doing great, just blink it out, and relax the muscles.'

Two sleepy-eyed blinks later, and Lars was back in

business. He attempted a smile, and the Commander

grinned dumbly around the room. Her lips trembled, and

then opened in ludicrously fast speech. 'Hey, it ain't easy

being this big! Talk about dumb animal...'

Down below, the Vykoid scientists were drenched in drops

of spittle.

The lead scientist, spoke into the communicator again.

'Hat back on... now.'

With a skilful whirring of pulleys, the NYPD cop baseball

cap was delicately lowered into position. A dangling Vykoid

tided up the hair around the cap and gave a thumbs-up

signal to down below. Lars was now out of sight, and totally

in command of Commander Strebbins.

'I'm good to go.'

Lars marched Strebbins out awkwardly, as the Vykoid

scientist called out, 'Next!'

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General Erik and his Vykoids had felt hours pass, stopping

for two meal breaks and nine cups of coffee in the process. But

in only thirty minutes of New York human time, the Vykoids

had upgraded themselves to become controllers of hundreds

of fully armed NYPD cops. They had taken the defenders of

the city, and made them the attackers.

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Chapter

18

Leaving the Doctor and Sam to rip more parts out of the mammoth,

Amy wa ndered out to Fifth Ave nue to watch out for fireworks

from Polly Vernon's class. The sun was beginning to rise above

Brooklyn, sending fingers of light through the still clear sky.

Then, as the sun rose over the park, something unexpected

happened. Another huge pulse of green light spread over the

city. Just like before, Amy felt as if every part of her had

become weightless, like she'd reached the top of a rollercoaster

ride. It passed just as quickly and, all around New York, the

power returned.

On the street around her, cables ripped from street lamps

sparked on the tarmac, and the windows of the city flashed into

light again, the blackness

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banished. It was astounding to Amy how quickly the air

filled with chatter as all the televisions and radios that had

been left on around the city blared noisily back to life.

Hearing the commotion, the Doctor ran out of the Zoo

to where Amy was staring joyfully at the rejuvenated city,

hopeful that the threat was over.

'Hey, the lights have come back on!' she cried. 'Is it over?

Maybe we've got the better of them?'

A department store window showed TV screens with

news channels scrambling to get their reporters on air. The

rolling headlines were calling it the Big Blackout. The sun

was rising above Brooklyn, and the dark night was over. All

the noises and business of an ordinary New York day began to

fill the air, as if the long dark night had been an aberration

or a bad dream. New York had survived a night of terror and

confusion and it felt like a time to celebrate.

But the Doctor punctured Amy's feeling of elation. 'That

was too easy.’ he told her grimly. "The Vykoids haven't done

what they came to do. This all has to be part of their plan.

The next stage has just begun.'

As New Yorkers ventured out of their apartments, Amy

could hear mobile phones ringing as people checked on

their friends and families. 'Are you OK?' 'What did you see?'

'Is anyone hurt?' All around New York the same things had

happened. But no one seemed to know who had done this,

or why

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such mayhem had been caused.

The Doctor and Amy joined a crowd watching the

television news through a cracked department-store

window. Trinity Wells was broadcasting to the nation,

looking immaculate as she spoke into camera.

'I'm about to bring you an exclusive for AMN news. The

woman who took control of the city overnight, and has

brought order back to New York, joining us live, is

Commander Strebbins of the New York Emergency Crisis

Taskforce.'

Strebbins walked stiffly into the studio and sat beside

Trinity.

'So,' said Trinity Wells, 'Commander Strebbins, what

happened last night? And what should New Yorkers be doing

this morning?'

Commander Strebbins leaned into the camera, lookin g

rather awkward, her make-up smudged and uneven. When

she spoke, her lips dribbled spittle, but the words came out

clear. 'I am keeping the curfew on Manhattan with all bridges

and tunnels into the city remaining closed. Following the

damage last night, we need to do structural tests before they

will be safe to re-open. However, I am pleased to tell you that

the City is otherwise back to normal: Metro lines will start

running at 8 a.m., and schools and places of work are

expected to open as usual. I'd like to reassure all small

business owners that there will not be a repeat of the violence

and

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DOCTOR WHO

looting of last night, and that there is no cause for concern.'

'How come she managed it, and we didn't?' Amy asked the

Doctor. She could tell that something wasn't right. 'Maybe

they've turned off, like in War of the Worlds, or the

atmosphere poisoned them, or something. They should have

worn little Vykoid gas masks...'

The Doctor didn't answer, and Amy was soon distracted

by the television. 'What is wrong with Trinity Wells,

though? Not a great day for her fashion-wise... I think her

shirt is on inside out.'

The Doctor leant in close to the television.

Amy tried again for a reaction from him. 'And why is she

wearing that ridiculous hat? What does she think she looks

like?'

The camera cut back to Commander Strebbins. She was

telling Trinity with evident pride that her team had been

working throughout the night to restore power and had

successfully apprehended the insurgents responsible. There

was a quick shot of some tired-looking men being hurried

into a police van, ragged in boiler suits and red-eyed. Then

Strebbins went on to explain again that the city was safe. That

it would always be safe, and New York could rely on having

the biggest and best Police Department in America.

'She's got all the wrong people,' Amy protested. 'She's

mad, she'll try and shoot anything that moves.

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I bet she's rounded up everyone who can't defend

themselves. It's outrageous!'

The Doctor had become very pensive. 'Oh, Amy, I think

I've missed something very important... I should have seen

it... How did I ever think they'd actually make all those

people slaves'? Especially when they came here looking for

Triceratops and Diplodocuses to haul rocks for them. I

don't think that's Commander Strebbins at all. We've been

doing what they wanted all along! They put the best people

they had out on the streets, and now they're under Vykoid

control.'

'Explain?' Amy demanded.

'Last night every single police officer in New York went

onto the streets and disappeared.'

Amy realised what he meant. 'Now they're all back,

walking a bit funny, and telling us to carry on as normal.'

"That's clever.’ the Doctor marvelled. 'They created the

threat. Made everyone hide indoors. Now the police are the

heroes of the hour, and they're going to line the streets and

pretend to save everyone.'

The TV screen was now showing Grand Central Station.

Hundreds of police officers were standing on every side of

the road.

Trinity Wells announced: "The streets of Manhattan will be

protected today by thousands of special forces...'

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The Doctor turned to Amy. 'We have to stop this. All of

New York is about to be dragged into slavery by its own

leaders, and no one will believe a word we say.'

'But how are they going to do it? They've only got a

mammoth, and they left it at the Zoo.'

'If they're advanced enough to put a Time Freeze over all

Manhattan, they must be a Level 18 civilisation, maybe

higher. They don't need that old mammoth any more. New

York's built on grids, very regular pattern, pretty easy to map

a high-intensity teleport matrix on top of this place. They'll

take everyone that's out on the streets. And at 9 a.m., seven

million people will be on the streets of New York. They'll be

sitting ducks.'

Amy plunged in with her own ideas. 'So, we get Sam,

recall the police, let everyone know what they're up to, and

shut down the transmitter. Whenever our gang of kids finds

it.'

The Doctor didn't answer. Amy looked round and was

infuriated to see that he'd wandered off.

She ran to catch up with him, 'Oi! Where are you going?

Oh...'

The Doctor was facing a line of NYPD officers, who were

pointing their guns straight at him. As one, they stiffly raised

their arms and took off their hats. Sitting under the baseball

cap of each trooper was a tiny Vykoid, grinning and waving

at the Doctor and Amy.

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Amy tugged at his arm. 'Er, Doctor. Are we the only

people in New York who know they're not really the police?'

'I see your point.’ the Doctor agreed. 'In that case we

should run!’ They hurtled off down the street with the

police-Vykoids following stiffly behind.

'Slow down, Doctor!' Amy called out. 'They can barely

walk, let alone run!'

The Doctor looked back and saw the police waddling

towards them with stiff legs making awkward strides. The

Vykoid controllers were doing their best, but somewhere

deep down, the police minds were fighting against them,

slowing their movements.

'It's not them I'm worried about,' the Doctor told Amy,

pointing to the other side of the road, where a fleet of

armoured police vans were pulling up.

'Ah. Point taken.' Amy took the Doctor's hand, and they

fled across a crossroad, dodging taxis and bikes.

Amy saw a yellow taxi idling outside an office and leapt

into the back. The Doctor had a better idea and jumped into

the driver's seat. At a nearby coffee stand, the driver saw

them, and shouted 'Oi!' He headed towards them, waving his

hands like a drunk Italian.

'Museum, please,' Amy requested, leaning back in the cab.

'Try to avoid the avenging aliens, though, if you could.'

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'Yes, ma'am.' The Doctor slammed the accelerator down and

they sped off, heading through early morning Manhattan.

Close on their tail, four NYPD cars were slamming through

the traffic, sirens blaring and lights flashing. Amy could see the

nearest driver had taken his hat off, and his Vykoid controller

was whooping with excitement, full of the glory of the chase.

They might have come to Earth to round up mammoths, but

were equally at home hunting Time Lords in New York.

Reaching a red light, the Doctor slammed on the brakes and

turned unexpectedly to the right, tyres smoking on the tarmac

as they skidded round the corner. Behind them, one of the cars

shot off the road, ploughing into a marble building.

'One down, Doctor...' Amy called. 'I didn't know you could

drive like this!'

The Doctor swung the car to the right, heading up a narrow

back alley. 'I don't often get the chance!'

The remaining squad cars were still close behind, and were

gaining on them. A shot rang out, and Amy heard the terrifying

sound of bullet tearing through metal. To compensate, the

Doctor tried to weave their car from side to side, looking like

an out-of-control learner driver.

Reaching a main road, the Doctor shot straight out, aiming

for another back alley. This time he clipped a newspaper stand

as he took a short cut on

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THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

the pavement, sending copies of the New York Times flying

through the air.

The Doctor's driving had taken them into the lurking

industrial buildings of Hell's Kitchen, and he turned through

more gloomy side streets. As the taxi approached, suspicious

workers carrying unmarked crates retreated back into the

shadows, unnerved by the sound of police sirens. Amy could

see only one car on their tail now, and that seemed to be

losing ground. The Doctor turned the taxi onto Broadway and

joined the streams of cars.

'It's still with us,' Amy told the Doctor, and he spun the taxi

around to the right. The car was heading straight for Central

Park and, without warning, the Doctor veered onto the grass,

smashing through a fence and circling the lake.

'What are you doing?' Amy yelled at the Doctor.

'I've lost them, haven't I?'

When she looked round, Amy had to agree that he was

right. 'But we're in the middle of nowhere... Oh.' While she'd

been talking, they'd arrived back at the entrance to the Zoo.

Parked right in front of the Zoo, Oscar was sitting in a

squad car packed with schoolchildren. Amy leapt out and ran

to hug him, then checked herself. What if he's one of the

Vykoids now? Oscar's happiness at seeing Amy was tested

when she yanked his hat off, ruffled his hair, and then poked

him repeatedly.

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DOCTOR WHO

'Good, it is you!' Amy said with relief, and gave him a

huge hug. 'Although what's with the normal clothes? I

thought a tiara suited you.'

'What are you doing with our team?' the Doctor asked.

'I found them downtown trying to set light to

something,' Oscar explained. 'They told me you'd put them

up to it. There's a lot of folk going missing right now, so I

thought I'd bring them back to you...'

Oscar opened the car door and the sleepy children in the

back of his car leapt out and ran to the Doctor. Joe, another

boy who was dressed as Batman, and two girls surrounded

the Doctor and Amy, talking over each other excitedly.

'We've found it.'

'It's this massive glowing ball.'

'Do I have to go to school now?'

'Joe didn't see it first, it was me.'

'We need to get a boat.'

'Speak slower!' Amy told them. 'One at a time.'

Joe stepped forward. 'We went up the Chrysler Building,

and Millie got scared but it was only the wind. Then we

went down to CitiGroup, and went out on the roof, and we

could see it... It's the Statue of Liberty. Everywhere else is

dark, but there's something inside the top of it, like a giant

fireball that kept on burning.'

'It was green,' Millie added.

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The Doctor beamed at them. 'That is brilliant, Joe. You

have been the best. Truly the best.'

Joe's face lit up with joy.

'I'm going to send you back to Miss Vernon now.’ the

Doctor went on. 'Whatever you see, just stay indoors.'

Amy looked downtown, gazing down the lonely deserted

streets strewn with rubbish. Every road was covered with

detritus of the Vykoids' midnight rampage, and she knew

that every obstruction might be hiding the alien army,

lurking and ready to ambush them.

'Don't worry.’ the Doctor said. 'We're three kilometres

and a short ferry ride away from the Statue of Liberty and, if

we don't get there before New York wakes up, all of

Manhattan are going to be taken as slaves. I guess you're

going to get to see the sights of New York after all, Amy.'

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Chapter

19

Inside the Zoo, the Doctor flung open the gates of the

mammoth enclosure and stood in front of the enormous

beast. Amy could see what he was thinking. And she flatly

refused.

"This is your plan? No way.'

'Come on.' The Doctor started to clamber up inside the

mammoth, and beckoned for Amy to join him.

'There's an army of them! Every police officer in New

York will be trying to stop us. They have guns.'

'Forget the courage of the mob. We have the

single-mindedness of the foolishly hopeful!'

I'm not coming in unless it's bigger on the inside.’ Amy

insisted. 'If I have to face the tiny army, I'm

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DOCTOR WHO

going to do it with dignity.’

'It's definitely faster in here.’ the Doctor said. Leaning

back out, he looked sweatier to Amy. 'You still here? I just

spent half an hour fixing it so I can steer with this.' He held up

a pretzel he'd picked up from a shut-down stall. 'Isn't that

funny! Steering with a pretzel? No? Nothing? Not even a

little bit?' He wasn't getting any reaction from Amy. 'Anyone

ever tell you that you're hard to please?' he asked.

Amy smiled. 'All of them, Doctor.' She had made a

decision. 'Now budge over. If we're going in this thing, I'm

driving.'

She grabbed the Doctor's hand and hauled herself up. The

Doctor had smashed out a space in the neck of the mammoth,

and Amy squeezed through the gap, emerging into the empty

head of the mammoth. The beast's massive eyes were

windows onto the city, and she gasped in amazement.

Outside, everyone was moving in ultra-slow motion. It

was like she was seeing people frame by frame. Joe was

standing beside Oscar, casually picking his nose in a gesture

that seemed to go on and on. Amy was drawn into the sheer

graphic wonder of seeing everything in such slow motion.

Behind Joe, two chatting women looked like lazy Guppy

fish, mouthing aimlessly. Amy was sure she could see

every muscle on Oscar's neck as he breathed. Oh so slowly,

he was getting the children back into the police car to deliver

them to Polly.

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'Is this what's it's like for the Vykoids?' Amy asked. 'No

wonder they've got so far.'

'If we can get to the Statue of Liberty and break their

signal, they'll be helpless.'

'Why did you say, if?' Amy cut straight in, a hard note to her

voice.

'What do you mean?'

'Don't pretend! You said, "If we can get there". We've just

climbed inside an alien spaceship disguised as a mammoth,

and you're not sure if it's going to work?'

"The one thing we have is the element of surprise. No one in

their right mind would attempt to do what we're going to do.'

The Doctor wired the pretzel to a set of tiny Vykoid

controls and pulled back. The mammoth lifted its head, and

Amy could see the skyline of New York ahead of her, the

Chrysler Tower glinting in the morning sun.

'Whoa!' Amy could feel herself starting to slip

backwards. The Doctor had pulled too far, and the mammoth

reared up on its back feet.

Looking through the huge eyes again, Amy watched Sam

running incredibly slowly to witness the sight of the

mammoth at full stretch.

'Down, Doctor!' Amy snapped, and pushed the

pretzel-wheel forward. With that, the mammoth crouched

down and lowered its head. Amy felt a judder as the

enormous tusks dug into the ground.

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The Doctor lowered the belly, and stuck his head out. 'Sam

- where have you been? We need you. Can't quite get a grip

of the steering.'

'I noticed that.' Sam pointed at the trenches the rusks had

gouged in the ground.

'Good, in that case you'll understand what you need to

do. No one knows a mammoth like you.'

Sam took the Doctor's hand and scrambled up, squeezing

through the neck to join Amy.

But the Doctor raised his hand. 'Uh, uh, sorry Sam, turns

out those Vykoids borrowed a trick from the dinosaurs. Two

steering centres, one in the front, the other in the...'

'So you got me up here to go in the back end?' Sam was

deflated.

The Doctor clapped him on his shoulders. 'Good man!

Don't worry, you can still see out.'

'How?' Sam asked, and then suddenly realised. 'Oh...'

'What a team we'll be! So, Sam, if you see us going the

wrong way, just shout.'

The Doctor crouched by the left eye and grabbed the

pretzel-wheel. But Amy shoved him over. 'I'm steering,

remember? You had your turn in the taxi.'

Amy felt happier at the wheel. After all, she'd meant

their trip to New York to be the time when she stopped being

bossed around, and here she was, about to drive a mammoth

down Broadway. She gave the controls a gentle pull, and

the mammoth

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THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

rose to its feet. Then, with another subtle shunt from Amy, it

started to walk forward, the machinery whirring as its steps

landed heavily on the tarmac.

The mammoth walked slowly out of the Zoo, past the

elephant enclosure and out of the main gates.

'I'm going to see if I can get this moving a bit faster.’ the

Doctor decided. He took out a pen and started tapping at the

tiny Vykoid controls. Lights started flashing all around them.

'What have you done?' Amy asked. That looked pretty

random to me.'

The Doctor looked hurt. 'As if I'd be so— Whoa!'

While he was speaking, the mammoth had crouched low

to the ground, pushed off with its left feet, and rolled over onto

its back.

'You were saying, Doctor?' Amy yelled, her head squashed

up against the floor.

The mammoth kept rolling over, but when it came back to

horizontal it just kept on going.

'Can't you stop it?' Amy demanded.

The Doctor was bent double, his gangly legs waving in the

air.

Amy leant forward and yanked the pretzel-wheel. It came

off in her hands.

From behind, Sam came tumbling in and collided with the

Doctor. As the mammoth turned over and over, their arms

and legs flailing around the mammoth's head. The Doctor's

arm hit a minuscule lever, and the mammoth stopped.

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DOCTOR WHO

'Finally!' Amy dusted herself down. 'I told you to let me

steer...'

Sam pointed through the window. They had come to rest

in the partially drained Central Park Pond.

Amy wasted no time. Winding the controls around the

pretzel again, she got the mammoth to leap to its feet and

stagger out of the park. Early risers walking their dogs in the

park saw a soaking wet and mud-splattered mammoth

appearing from the pond and fled.

Amy steered the beast to Fifth Avenue, and soon found it

was easier to step over cars and rubble than to walk around.

Going through the Pulitzer Fountain, she paused by

Bergdorf Goodman's and swung the mammoth's head to get a

closer look.

'Oops! Didn't mean to do that.' She'd smashed the

department store's window with the mammoth's tusks. She

hurriedly put the mammoth back on course.

Amy pressed forward down the wide Fifth Avenue, and

the mammoth started to pick up speed. Past the Bank of

America and Tiffany's the mammoth galloped, so fast the

buildings became a blur. Clutching the pretzel-wheel, Amy

stayed focused on the road ahead. From the left eye she

could see security guards turning in her direction, but they

moved so slowly that they didn't even see her before the

beast had sprinted past.

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'Remember they can't actually move out of the way.’ the

Doctor said. He pointed ahead at a group of people crossing

the road so slowly they looked like the cover of the Beatles'

Abbey Road album.

'Got it covered, Doctor.’ Amy assured him. She leaned

back in her seat, and the mammoth reared up and leapt over

the people's heads, spraying them with muddy water.

Racing past Macy's, Amy had arrived at the junction with

Broadway when the Doctor yelled 'Stop!'

He pointed to the left. Madison Square was filled with

NYPD troops, and Strebbins was marching up and down,

barking out orders.

Hundreds of Vykoid soldiers were gathering, setting up

for the next stage of the operation. Their tiny jeeps were

parked up on the curb, and they seemed to be synchronising

their watches. For the first time since the Time Freeze had

started, Amy could see the Vykoids moving at normal speed.

The little aliens started to run over as soon as they saw the

mammoth, and she tensed up.

'It's OK.’ the Doctor reassured her. 'They're no faster than

us now.'

The Vykoids were looking very alarmed, and started

making calls on their tiny walkie-talkies.

'On we go!' the Doctor said, and Amy steered the

mammoth away from the Vykoids and down Broadway.

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DOCTOR WHO

A breathless Sam stuck his head up into the mammoth's

neck and asked: 'Shouldn't we have hidden from them?'

Amy and the Doctor burst out laughing.

'We're in a mammoth on Broadway.’ Amy pointed out. 'I

don't think subtlety and camouflage are among our

strengths!'

As they headed into downtown New York, Amy gazed at

the vast city around her. There were NYPD officers at the

corner of each block. To a girl from Leadworth, the casual

display of guns was shocking. And Amy knew what they

were going to use them for. Passing City Hall, she saw a

crowd of people waiting on the steps.

'The Vykoids are sealing all the doors to keep everyone

out in the open,' the Doctor said.

'Talk about mean streets... How long do we have?'

The Doctor looked around. 'They'll wait until they get it at

the busiest time. Everyone in Manhattan will go to work and

end up as a mining slave...'

High above Manhattan, General Erik gazed out of the crown

of the Statue of Liberty and saw the city waking up. Pretty

soon, he would instruct his men to use the police on the

streets to lead everyone in New York onto Broadway.

General Erik's Vykoid soldiers had worked through the

night to lay teleport signal amplifiers

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THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

along its length and, when the tarmac was packed to

bursting, he would send the first shipment back. If the NYPD

did their work as planned, they would slowly empty the city,

forcing everyone to march onto Broadway and go to his

hometown.

At moments like this, General Erik wondered if he'd

aimed too low. He was already confident in his success, and

was seriously considering extending the campaign to round

up the entire East Coast of America. He'd get promoted for

this operation, he was sure.

More than anything, General Erik loved that he'd been able

to do all this, with none of the humans suspecting anything

was happening until the very last minute. With any luck, he

would take Manhattan without a single loss of life.

A nervous private interrupted General Erik's thoughts.

'Sir, the mammoth is on the move. And Sector 9 is reporting

the non-human we encountered called the Doctor was not part

of the Puppet Programming Operation.'

General Erik dismissed the private, and turned back to the

window. He felt unshakeable. There was nothing one man and

a mammoth could do now.

With the children safe at Polly Vernon's, Oscar stepped back

into his squad car. Ever since he'd seen Amy stride off into

the Subway, he'd been determined to prove himself. He

couldn't bear to

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watch his fellow officers turned into Vykoid slaves.

Hardening his heart to the task ahead, he told himself that

his only option was to find Commander Strebbins and take

the alien controller from her head. Taking out his mobile,

he dialled the private number Strebbins had given him.

On the other side of the city, walking stiffly out of the TV

Studio, Commander Strebbins picked up her phone.

'I am ready to report on the Doctor,' Oscar told her.

Sitting in the command chair on top of her head, the

Vykoid Lars grinned and waggled his levers to make

Strebbins answer. 'Of course, I'll be at Madison Square. Meet

me there.'

Sitting in his car, Oscar's hands shook with nerves. He'd

never thought being a police officer would lead him to this.

He drew out his gun and loaded it. He wasn't going to let

New York go down without a fight.

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Chapter

20

Their mad dash across Manhattan had worked, and Amy

stopped the mammoth in the shadow of the World Financial

Center. The waters of the Hudson lapped at the quayside in

front of them. The dock was thronging with boats, and New

York ferries. Amy was eager to get out of the mammoth and

leap aboard.

'Hang on a minute, Amy.’ said the Doctor, then yelled

back to Sam: 'Is this thing waterproof?'

Sam appeared, ruffled and shiny from being cooped up

in the back end of the mammoth. 'It should be, yeah. I

mean, it kept the ice out for all that time.'

The Doctor knocked on the walls, 'Built of rare Vykoid

alloys. I reckon it'll float, even with us inside.

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Oh don't look at me like that, Amy, that's the slowest ferry

you'll ever see. It'll be like the open bus tour of Leadworth.

This way, we get to find out one of the lost secrets of

prehistory... Can a mammoth swim?'

Amy turned the mammoth away from the ferry, and

headed south into Battery Park. In front of her they could

see Ellis island, where twelve million immigrants had once

arrived for a new life in America and, standing proudly in

the bay, the Statue of Liberty itself.

Joe and the other children had been right. Even in the

morning sun, Amy could see the pulse of alien light on the

Statue. Sparks of green energy arced between the spikes of

the crown, and the top of the statue crackled like a circuit

waiting to discharge.

'OK, I'm ready.’ Amy said. 'Though I'd like to point out

you never said it was going to be "Goodbye Leadworth,

hello drowning inside a hairy elephant".'

The Doctor smiled. 'Being trapped inside friendly monsters

is all part of the fun.'

The mammoth picked up pace, going faster and faster

until it reached the water's edge. Amy pulled back on the

pretzel-wheel, and the giant creature soared forward.

Barely a metre away from the quay, they landed in the

water with a massive splash and, for a disconcerting

moment, the entire mammoth sank down, down into the

murky waters of the Hudson.

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As water rose up past the eyes of the mammoth, Amy saw an

astonished school of fish blinking in wonder at the hairy beast.

Amy looked around her nervously. 'Er, how exactly do you

know Vykoid metal floats?'

'The skin is holding tight.’ the Doctor reassured her. 'Look,

no water's leaking in. So come on - teach this thing to swim!'

Amy kicked out with the mammoth's feet, and it sprang off

the silty riverbed and bobbed back up to the surface, its massive

tusks jutting out of the water.

As the head broke the surface of the water, a slow-moving

seagull flapped its wings lazily and took to the air. The Doctor

grabbed the pretzel-wheel and yanked the controls to one side.

'We're going a bit faster than them, too - they can't move out

of the way.’ he explained.

The seagull narrowly avoided being impaled on the

fast-moving tusk and splashed back down in the water,

perturbed by the hairy beast wallowing in the Hudson.

'Full steam ahead!' the Doctor yelled.

Battling through the waves and currents the mammoth was

swimming directly towards Liberty Island. It lurched side to side

with the swell and was beginning to gather all the rubbish from

the water in its long coat.

'This is fun, isn't it?' the Doctor said to Amy.

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'Maybe we could keep this in the TARDIS when we're

done?'

Amy was too busy keeping the mammoth afloat to pay

him much attention. 'I so should have made Rory take me to

New York. I go with you, and end up inside a giant moose.'

Oscar walked into Madison Square Park with a sense of

trepidation. He'd come here to pull off the greatest act of

marksmanship since William Tell. He was going to shoot the

Vykoids off the top of the heads of every NYPD Officer in

the city. It was the only way he could think of to free them

from their controllers.

But something felt wrong. Madison Square had emptied

of troops, and Commander Strebbins was standing alone in

the middle of the park. Oscar sensed a trap but, committed

to the task ahead, marched solemnly forward.

He stopped ten metres away from his boss. 'Commander,

I need to know if you've been compromised.'

As he spoke, his eyes scanned the ground around her feet.

He could see blurs of movement and hear quiet, high-pitched

chattering. She was surrounded by the Vykoids.

This time, Oscar addressed his words to them: 'I know

who you are. And I will not let this happen to our great city.'

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Strebbins looked interested.

Oscar continued. 'The situation has changed. This time

you've given me a target. And I'm not afraid to take her

down.'

He took his pistol out and aimed at Strebbins. 'If I shoot

her, then this whole thing falls apart...' He felt a tap on his

shoes and kicked four Vykoids away. 'I feel one more of you

on me, and she dies.'

For a moment Oscar sensed the silence of the park. He

felt immune from the sirens and noisy chatter of the city

streets. This was just him and Strebbins.

Tut the gun down, officer. You will do as I say.'

Up until that point, Oscar had felt sure he could go

through with this. But that was the voice of Jackie Strebbins, a

sound he'd come to respect and fear. He told himself there was

an alien under her hat, and steeled his resolve.

'This isn't you, Commander, and I am ordering you to

stop.'

Commander Strebbins's face went blank for a second.

Oscar guessed that the Vykoid under her hat was radioing

back for advice. Oscar could see the Vykoids were moving

to circle him. If he did shoot Commander Strebbins, he knew

he would quickly be made into one of their puppets.

Commander Strebbins's features abruptly twisted into a

contemptuous sneer. 'Go ahead and shoot,' she said.

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Strebbins spread her arms out in front of her. Totally

defenceless. The easiest target Oscar had ever been given.

Oscar didn't know what to do. The sight of surrender

stunned him. He would need the stab of self-belief to be able

to pull the trigger, and it was deserting him.

Then Strebbins took her hat off, revealing the Vykoid

beneath. 'Shoot me, shoot her, take your pick,' the tiny

creature shouted.

Oscar was appalled to see the tiny troll lording it over

Commander Strebbins. He felt the rage building back up

inside him. The Vykoid was apparently finding it so easy.

'There are hundreds of us.’ the little figure taunted. 'What

difference does it make if one of us dies. We'll still take your

people.'

This was the extra push he needed, and Oscar began to

squeeze the trigger. Then stopped. In training, Oscar had

shot dozens of silhouettes and dummies. He was well

practised in raising his gun to threaten or to silence. It was a

way of establishing power, not doling out justice. In his time

as a police officer he'd never fired a furious bullet. The anger

inside him felt wrong. He was part of law enforcement. Not

the law itself.

Commander Strebbins lifted her head, and looked Oscar

in the eye. 'We took your city, without a life being lost. Now I

see why!' She began to laugh.

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'You're a coward. Just like the rest of your stinking, lumbering

race.'

At this, Oscar tightened his grip on his gun. 'Don't say

that. Stop laughing!'

But Strebbins's scorn increased. 'Look at you, all uniform

and protocol and swagger. But you can't execute me. You

need to see someone's back before you shoot. That's the

problem with you big clumsy beasts. Too occupied with the

small picture.'

Oscar met Strebbins's mocking gaze. The blood throbbed

in his head, and his ears were ringing with adrenalin. He

wanted to do the right thing. But what was it? What should he

do? Whatever was on her head, Strebbins was a person and

she'd done nothing wrong. She'd be an innocent casualty.

He lowered the gun, and shut his eyes, waiting for the

Vykoids to come and take him.

Not content to stay at home when all the action was out on the

streets, Polly had taken her class and broken in through the

basement entrance of Trump Tower. They'd climbed up the

service stairs, and smashed their way onto the roof. Now,

lying on her belly on the roof, Polly could see the madness of

the city below.

On every cross street, a line of police officers marched

forwards, herding confused and scared New Yorkers in

front of them. Riding on top of an armoured vehicle,

Commander Strebbins broadcast

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to the crowds with a loudhailer, her words becoming clearer as

she drew closer.

'... terrorists on the streets ... bombs in the Subway ... need

to stay out in the open ... Every building is sealed until we can

be sure that the threat has passed. Until then, we ask that you

remain in the open. Please give law enforcement officers your

full cooperation, we will keep you informed of any

developments. There are terrorists on the streets of New

York...'

Polly was struck dumb by the magnitude of what was

happening. How had her fellow New Yorkers become so

scared of the unseen that they followed the most bizarre

commands without protest? Did everyone think deep down

that they deserved to be scared?

From so high above, the city looked like a colony of ants

was being steamed out into the open. Black dots converged

on Broadway from every street in New York. People seemed

only too eager to follow the commands of Strebbins and her

men - too focused on the unknown horror to realise what they

were being asked to do.

Polly prayed for a miracle. The people she loved were

being rounded up, and she couldn't do a thing to stop it. She

watched as the crowds, only too happy to accept an unnamed

threat, shuffled and gossiped as they marched into the Vykoid

trap.

*

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And across New York, every radio station, every television

programme, every possible means of communication

broadcast the same message:

'Follow the police to safety. The invisible menace will not

defeat us! New York will not surrender! Broadway is the

nominated muster station until further notice. I repeat,

Broadway is the only street to have been cleared of terrorist

devices.'

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Chapter

21

The mammoth clambered out of the Hudson onto Liberty Island

and stood dripping beside the base of the Statue of Liberty.

Sam squeezed back into the head of the mammoth. 'What

now?'

'We go up, close down the Time Freeze and stop them

teleporting most of Manhattan into slavery.’ the Doctor

replied.

'How do we do that?'

'Oh, just wait and see.'

'No, go on, tell me,' Sam asked. 'I've just swum the

Hudson in an extinct animal. I think I can handle it.'

'He probably doesn't know yet,' Amy confided. 'Best not

to ask.'

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'Winston Churchill.’ the Doctor said, to Amy's surprise.

'Winston always said he didn't want there to be a statue of

him, because the pigeons would, you know, cover it in their

mess. When he died, they built one anyway, and they did

something extraordinary. They electrified it, so no bird

would come near it.'

'Yeah? So what? We've got a city to save, don't start going

all Simon Schama on me.'

'Look at this statue.' The Doctor tilted the mammoth's

head back so they were staring right to the top of the Statue

of Liberty. 'There's not a bird in sight. I don't think they cut

the power. I think they've been using it.'

As soon as the Doctor had pointed it out, it seemed

horribly obvious. Flocks of seagulls circled around the bay

and turned away in the sky above Liberty Island as if they'd

been shocked.

'What's it made of, Sam?' the Doctor asked.

'Steel and copper.'

"That.’ said the Doctor, 'is 240 tonnes of battery. Wow,

when that thing discharges, New York is going to fry.'

'What do we do?' Amy asked.

'Same as before. Only, we don't touch anything.' The

Doctor smiled. 'Right, 345 steps to the top. Come on - I'll

race you.'

"That sounds like a pretty lame way to make an entrance,

especially to the headquarters of an alien

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army.’ Amy commented, raising the mammoth's head again

to scope out the statue. 'You know, I've got quite good on

this thing...'

The Doctor broke into a huge grin. 'Go for it, Pond!'

Crashing through the ticket barriers, the monument that

had welcomed so many immigrants since that first twelve

million now admitted its first mammoth. Amy twisted and

turned the animal on the steps. She was focused intently on

her task, determined to get to the top as fast as possible.

Taking a corner too slowly, the mammoth grazed the

inside of the Statue, and its fur started to smoke.

'Careful there!' the Doctor yelled.

'Thanks, Doctor,' Amy said sarcastically. 'Really helpful

advice.'

At the top of the Statue, General Erik was watching their

progress with disbelief. He didn't know what they were

trying to achieve. Watching the crowds being squeezed onto

Broadway, he dismissed the Doctor as no more than a

distraction. A buzzing fly in his ear, which would soon be

swatted.

With an enormous roar, the mammoth burst into the Crown

Room of the Statue of Liberty, and was immediately hit with

thousands of darts from the Vykoid guns.

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Inside, the Doctor frantically started to hit levers.

'Doctor, it's shutting down!' Amy cried.

'I noticed...'

Out of the right eye, she could see an intrepid Vykoid

scaling the mammoth's front leg. It stopped at the knee and hit a

tiny button behind the kneecap.

Unexpectedly, the entire lower half of the mammoth fell

to the floor and, with a heavy bump, the Doctor, Amy and

Sam landed in the middle of the room, surrounded by an

elite squad of Vykoid soldiers.

The Doctor was spread-eagled under the belly of the

beast. He managed to pull himself out from under it, only

to trip on the wet and singed mammoth fur.

'So much for an entrance,' he murmured.

General Erik strode forward. As he raised his baton, the

soldiers lowered their guns.

The Doctor seemed intrigued rather than intimidated.

'Ooh, you're still moving slowly. So we're not affected by

the Time Freeze in here.'

'This is a Level Five planet. How do you know about the

Time Freeze?' demanded General Erik.

The Doctor grinned. 'Oh, I know lots of things, me. Not

hard to work out, really. One minute you're waddling about

like miniature trolls, the next you're all Wily Coyote and

thinking you're the masters of the universe.'

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'Correction, Doctor. The Vykoids are the race with the

most refined technology of any attacking race. Now we

have proven ourselves, our name shall spread throughout

the galaxy and bring fear to the hearts of our enemies.'

'Nice speech! Must sound great in the War Rooms on

Vykoid. Brilliant minds, but you guys miss the point

sometimes. Like the reach of that secondhand teleport

beam is only, what, thirty metres? You'd need to be very

lucky to get what you want with that...'

'Or very clever.'

'True, that's also true. But I've noticed you keep waving

that baton around like it's the answer to everything, and I

think I know why.'

The Doctor grabbed at General Erik's hand and came

away with the tiny baton. It was barely a centimetre long

and covered with alien symbols.

'Reactions are a bit slow there, Erik. You've been relying

on this Time Freeze thing for too long, you've got slack.'

'What is it, Doctor?' Amy asked.

'It's a remote control. Oh you are such a bloke, Erik, you

just have to keep it where no one else can change the

channel. Honestly, look at you here, hanging out with all

your boys, polishing each other's armour all day long,

waiting for the day you get to dominate another city. Still, no

one gets to do much if I can do this.

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The Doctor took a needle out of his pocket and jabbed at

three points on the baton. The vortex of green light changed to

orange, and a huge wave rolled out across Manhattan.

'Now that's better. Isn't that clever? Unless your little people

jockeys have got a bit faster, the police won't be moving quite

as niftily any more. That's the problem with relying on modern

technology, you see. Me, I just have a good old sonic— Oh.'

General Erik was grinning. He looked like an expert poker

player who had picked too ignorant an opponent, and was

disappointed by his lack of effort. 'Move, and I'll shoot her,' he

said.

Sam Horwitz was holding a gun to Amy's head and was

forcing her down onto the floor.

'No, Sam!' The Doctor was horrified.

As he held her tight, Amy could see that a tiny Vykoid had

dug a control chair through Sam's messy hair and was gleefully

controlling him. Sam had become a puppet of the Vykoid Army.

Amy kicked and struggled, her elbows digging into Sam as

she tried to fight him off. But Sam overpowered Amy and

pinned her to the floor.

General Erik strolled over and regarded Amy at her eye

level.

'Oi, troll-face!' Amy yelled at him. Tell him to let go of me.'

General Erik ignored her. 'Fascinating... You're so

important to him, and you don't know why.'

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'You better let go of me, or he's going to do something

terrible to you...'

If General Erik was at all moved by Amy's big, fierce

eyes, he didn't show it. Instead, he called his lieutenant

forward and instructed him to kill Amy Pond.

On top of Trump Tower, Joe turned to Polly and asked: 'Will

my dad be OK?'

Polly didn't know what to say.

Millie pulled at her hand. 'Shouldn't the Doctor be doing

something now?'

Again, Polly was stumped. Far below, she could see that

people were beginning to panic. The police were shoving the

crowds along, truncheons drawn as they ordered everyone to

cram onto Broadway. Polly could imagine how terrified they

must feel down there. Squad cars were lining up on each

cross street, lights flashing and sirens blaring. They had shut

the city down, and no one knew why.

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Chapter

22

Inside the Statue of Liberty, the Doctor and Amy had their

hands tied and were taken from the Crown Room. As Sam

dragged them out, Amy could see General Erik take his

position at the window, ready to start transporting the people

of New York to the asteroid mines.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Amy started on the

Doctor.

'Why did you surrender?'

"They were going to kill you!'

'But you gave him back that remote control thing. There are

millions of people out there!'

'Did I mention, he was going to shoot you?'

'I thought you'd do something clever.'

'Yeah, me saving you, that was the clever bit.

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Honestly, Amy, is being brave not good enough for you? I

thought you'd be showering me in kisses.'

Amy snorted. 'Unlikely. Not if it means I'll be mining

fossilised Space-Boar droppings for the rest of my life.'

The Doctor sighed.

Amy hadn't finished yet. 'So what are you going to do?'

'Where do you think we are, Amy?'

'I don't know. Some kind of round hut thing? Oh, don't go

changing the subject on me.'

But the Doctor was too interested in his surroundings.

They had been tied up and dumped inside the Torch of the

Statue of Liberty.

Sam Horwitz stood back, and looked at them with a

disinterested expression. 'You'll be pleased to know that

you've been chosen as the first. It is a great honour. The

General himself has overturned your evaluations to ensure

you have a long and glorious service in the mines.'

'Sam - can you bend down?' Amy whispered. 'I want to

tell you something.'

Sam obliged. And Amy headbutted him hard on the side

of the head. The controlling Vykoid clung on for his life,

digging his hands into Sam's hair. But he hadn't been

dislodged, and Sam stepped back.

The Vykoid was laughing at Amy now. 'Did you ever look

at big animals and wonder why they were so stupid?'

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Amy stamped her foot in frustration. 'Yeah, I get it. But I'm

not the one drowning in dandruff and hair gel.'

'Sam.' The Doctor looked deadly serious. 'Sam, I need

you to listen very carefully. Somewhere in there, Sam is still

alive. You are more than a puppet, and you need to try very

hard to remember that.'

The Vykoid controlling Sam laughed hysterically. 'Why are

you even trying? It's like cattle going to the market. You are

going to be sold, so stop mooing.'

The Doctor wasn't put off. 'Sam, you need to listen to me.

This city was built on dreams of freedom. The American

dream wasn't built on might and weapons. It was built by

hard work and the hope of freedom on the other side. That's

why you came here, that's why your great grandparents came

here. This is the city of the free, and no one in it, simply no

one, can ever accept being a slave. Focus on that feeling, Sam,

the dream of freedom you have in you - use it to overpower

what you're feeling.'

Amy leant close to the Doctor and whispered, 'Do you

think it'll work?'

The Doctor met Sam's eyes and continued. 'You need to

believe in yourself, Sam. You are more than this, you are not

meant to be a slave. Sam - this is your big day. The moment

you become famous. Help me, and I can stop this happening.

Trust me, Sam, and trust yourself.'

The Vykoid controller looked rattled. He pulled

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on the levers, but it seemed that Sam was no longer

responding. Moving so fast he was a blur of energy, the

controller was slamming buttons and yanking every control

he had, but to no avail.

With every movement an obvious effort, Sam raised his

hand, grasped the Vykoid and yanked the chair from his

head. 'Ow!' he winced as the tiny wires they'd drilled into his

skull ripped out. He bent double, but then straightened up

with pride.

'I did it!'

The Vykoid was dangling from Sam's hand, furiously

trying to bite and scratch his way free.

'As for you...' Sam lifted the Vykoid higher. 'How dare you

do this to me?' He inspected the troll-like figure with a

scientist's eye. 'What an ugly little creature you are.'

'Over here, Sam.' The Doctor was holding out his hand.

Carefully taking the Vykoid by the scruff of the neck, he

took out the sonic screwdriver and scanned the small

creature from head to toe. 'Here, hold this. Gentle with him

now.'

The Doctor handed the Vykoid to Amy and clambered

up to the top of the Torch. Standing precariously on the

crossbeams, he touched the sonic screwdriver to the very

peak of the Torch and then leapt down, a huge grin on his

face.

'Done!'

'Is that it?' Amy said, bewildered. 'Here, take this back... I

don't want him.'

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The Vykoid's leathery face was screwed up and knotted

with anger.

'Ah, let him go,' said the Doctor. 'He can't stop us now.'

Amy dropped the Vykoid to the floor and dusted her

hands together, glad to be rid of the alien. 'So why are you

looking so pleased with yourself?' she asked.

The Doctor led Amy and Sam to a tiny porthole and

looked out towards New York.

That's one of the biggest cities in the world,' he told them.

'The best of everything is there. But it's not about being

bigger. It doesn't matter who has the biggest guns or the most

money or the most troops. The mightiest army can fall to the

smallest. The Vykoids showed us that. But they made a

mistake, a tiny mistake. They should have killed us when they

had the chance.'

'What have you done?' Sam asked.

I can't make the mob turn on them. I can't even stop the

Time Freeze. But I can do something they don't expect...'

'Which is?'

'That teleport beam. They've programmed it for humans.'

'Yeah, I gathered,' Amy said.

'Erik does everything with his remote control. Very

technological race, the Vykoids, they love to put too many

functions into a device. Their beam comes

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DOCTOR WHO

from the highest point of the Statue of Liberty.' The Doctor

pointed up. 'Right here.'

Amy looked out. 'But they're all still captives. The

Vykoids have rounded everyone up.'

The Doctor grinned. 'That teleport beam is going to leave

the people of New York exactly where they are. But the police

officers might lose something on their heads...'

In the Crown Room, General Erik checked his watch and

nodded to his men. He picked up his radio, and issued the

command. 'We are good to go. I'd like to thank the

puppeteers for their sterling work.'

Around him, the Vykoids scurried around a control

room, and the green vortex grew in intensity like a mini-star. It

burnt so brightly that the entire top half of the Statue of Liberty

became luminescent.

Holding his baton in front of him as if it were the key to

life itself, General Erik pressed a button. A vast beam leapt

out of the vortex, sprang to the Torch on the top of the Statue

of Liberty and arced through the air towards Broadway. As it

touched the ground, it crackled and smoked. The ground

shook, and smoke rose from the tarmac.

The beam idled for a moment on the south of

Manhattan. Then, with a flick of General Erik's wrist, it

snaked and turned along the jagged line of Broadway,

leaving a cloud of smoke in its wake. As it reached the top of

the island, General Erik turned

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THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

the beam off with a triumphant wave of his hand.

'It is done. Ten seconds - that's all it took!' General Erik

pushed his sense of dignity to one side and did a little dance

on the windowsill. 'We have taken New York. If I can make

it here, I'll make it anywhere!'

General Erik was already dreaming of the rewards he

would have lavished on him in the Vykoid halls. They'd

build a statue of him twice the size of the Statue of Liberty. It

would be the Statue of Victory, and it would bear his name.

He picked up his radio and called Commander Strebbins.

'Lars! Come in. I am ready to hear your report.'

There was no reply, but General Erik wasn't daunted.

'Stop celebrating, you hothead! We have another five

transports to do before the day is done.'

Again there was no reply. General Erik flicked a switch on

his radio and tried again.

'Red? Are you receiving? Red?'

Another Vykoid clambered up and whispered in his

general's ear.

With a mounting sense of dread, General Erik took the

telescope that the private thrust into his hand, and gazed

out at Manhattan.

The people of Manhattan were still crammed into

Broadway. But on every street, the NYPD officers were

scratching their heads and wondering what

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DOCTOR WHO

on earth was going on. Their Vykoid controllers had gone.

Teleported back to their home planet.

For a whole minute General Erik said nothing.

The Doctor stood in the doorway.

General Erik faced him with tiny tears falling from his

red eyes onto his wrinkled face, and he howled. He felt like

a mouse caught in a trap, and took little satisfaction from the

sight of the Doctor recoiling from the noise of his painful

and ugly rage.

'You have tricked me, Doctor.'

The Doctor walked forward, and crouched down to

General Erik's level. 'I'm sorry, Erik, I really am, but I

couldn't let you do it.'

'But we are better than them. They are only oafs. We are

the true race.'

'That's where you are very wrong. They may be stupid and

clumsy and selfish, but they are the most brilliant people you

will ever meet. Right now, there are men and women who

deserve to live freely, with no one telling them what to do,

and without fear that someone might tear their city to pieces

overnight. And as long as you keep on thinking that they

deserve less, I will keep on stopping you.'

If General Erik had grown conceited with success, he now

seemed puzzled by the humility of failure. 'How can I return

empty-handed?'

He realised instantly that the question had been

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THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

a mistake. There was a hint of anger in the Doctor's crooked

smile, and General Erik found himself backing away.

The Doctor spoke quietly. 'You should count yourself

lucky. You fought and lost, and will go home as free men.

We've been kinder to you than you've been to any planet you've

conquered. And when you get back, tell everyone you meet that

this planet is not prepared to be enslaved. Tell them they have a

great champion and a great warrior.'

The Doctor bent down towards General Erik and whispered in

his ear. Two words.

'You better go before the boat tours start.'

The Doctor, Amy and Sam were standing on Liberty Island

with the mammoth. General Erik was at their feet, gazing over

the city he'd failed to conquer.

The Doctor held out his hand and General Erik handed him

the baton. 'It's time you left, Erik.'

The Vykoid General stood in front of his most senior

officers, thanking them one by one. It was obvious to Amy that

they meant nothing to him. He had no affection or gratitude for

any of them.

'Oh, er, sorry about the insides.’ Amy said, nodding at the

mammoth. 'We had to make some room.'

General Erik saluted farewell and joined the columns of

Vykoid soldiers retreating onto the belly

241

DOCTOR WHO

of the mammoth. With a gentle tick of clockwork, the army

was lifted back inside the mammoth. It shut with a quiet

clunk and, moments later, an eerie green light blasted out,

filling the air with that strange high-pitched screech. The

sphere of green boiling light engulfed the mammoth and

spread out, pulsing as if ready to explode over the city.

But this time it snapped inwards, and a crash rang out,

echoing like a thousand cymbals rumbling to the floor.

The mammoth was gone.

Amy gave the Doctor a massive hug. 'Now tell me what

you did.'

'Simple really. I changed the genetic profile of the

teleport beam. Took a scan from the Vykoid controlling

Sam, fed it into the teleport transmitter, and it took all the

Vykoids back home. Smallest thing we did today.'

Sam stepped forward. 'If you don't mind, Doctor, I have a

question. All you said, about freedom and dreams, is it true?'

'Worked on you, didn't it? Have you heard the story

about the richest man in America? He arrived in New York

with nothing but two potatoes, he sold those and bought

four potatoes, sold them and bought eight potatoes, in ten

years time he was selling potatoes up and down the East

Coast. Pretty soon he was so rich he had people to chew his

own chips for him.'

242

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

'Really?' Sam said excitedly. 'Do you think that's how it

works? Could it happen to anyone?'

To you? Oh no, you'd make a terrible potato dealer. You're

far better than that. You brought an alien army to New York,

and then sent them back again. That's as good as it gets.'

243

Chapter

23

The Doctor stood in Times Square and clicked his fingers. The

TARDIS faded into view.

There was no sign that the mammoth had ever existed. The

streets had been cleared of debris, and the road works and

building sites of New York were back in action, churning out dust

and noise. Nobody would ever know they had all been seconds

away from working for the Vykoids.

'Stop, police!'

The Doctor looked around him.

'It's Oscar.’ Amy told him. 'Hi, Oscar.'

Oscar looked at the Doctor and Amy, as if he was struggling to

remember them. 'How do you know my name?'

Amy grinned. 'Lucky guess.'

245

DOCTOR WHO

'Right.' Oscar frowned. 'Well, you can't leave this box

here.'

'We're not going to.’ the Doctor said.

'And, Oscar,' Amy said, 'you've been brilliant.'

The Doctor and Am y stepped back inside the TARDIS,

and Oscar stared after them in wonder.

'Why didn't he know who we were?' Amy asked.

'I think the Time Freeze is going to have a terrible effect

on their short-term memories. When their brains sped up

again, they lost a lot of what happened, maybe all of it.

They'll never know.'

Amy strolled over to the Doctor, who was leaning back

on the console, 'So that's it? You saved the world, and nobody

ever knows?'

'We saved the world, Amy. People will forget, but we know

that we got rid of the Forgotten Army of the Vykoids. Never

let anyone take that away from you.' The Doctor paused.

'Although you will, like the Vykoids, be forgotten. Still, I’ll

always know, and that's what counts. Amy Pond, there's a

name - you could be a queen in a fairy tale.' The Doctor

rolled the words around, speaking them grandly to the

corners of the TARDIS: The mighty Amelia Pond, Saviour

of New York!'

'Yeah, shut up,' Amy mumbled. She wasn't used to

receiving compliments that she hadn't demanded.

The Doctor just laughed.

246

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

Amy looked at the Doctor with interest. 'How come you

find it so easy to leave? Don't you ever wonder what

happened to everyone - Sam and Polly, and Oscar, and poor

old Commander Strebbins.'

The Doctor skidded round the glass floor of the TARDIS.

'Nah, they'll be fine... Although I never got to show you the

bar where the Governor of New Amsterdam lost the city in a

bet. Bad day, I was busy on the Bronx peace talks. Well, they

say they were talks, felt more like a barn dance to me. I

thought I told you to stop me if I rambled?'

Amy laughed at her Doctor, still raggedy in so many

ways. 'I've given up trying. You never stop talking!'

'You love it really.'

The Doctor ignored the face Amy was pulling, and pulled

four levers in different directions. The vworp of the TARDIS

engines began, and the bubbles of blown glass started to

groan up and down in the console.

'Next stop,' the Doctor announced, 'the Delirium Archive.

There are Magnatine Dynasty crystals so beautiful they'll

make your hair go curly with delight. Or maybe with

boredom... Anyway, we'll find out soon!'

On the New York street outside, Mr Germowski was surprised

to see the shiny blue box parked on the pavement fade and

disappear with a loud rasping,

247

DOCTOR WHO

groaning sound. Still, at least he had his pitch back. He wheeled

his pretzel stall into position, and hollered into the street.

'Pretzels three dollars!'

To his surprise, the weird noise returned, and the blue box

shuddered back into view. It was almost as if they'd heard his

shouting.

A young man with floppy hair leaned out of the blue box,

with a big grin on his long face. He gave the stunned

Germowski a ten dollar bill, and took three pretzels.

'Do you know, one of these saved New York earlier today?'

the man said cheerfully.

Germowski was gobsmacked, and could only stare as, with

a cheery wave, the man shut the door and the blue box once

more faded away.

***

Far away from Earth, a tiny Vykoid stood in a vast hall, spiky

helmet in hand, facing the Committee for Unsuccessful

Invasions. It was time for him to explain why he had returned

from Earth empty-handed. And General Erik had only one

answer to give. Two words: 'Amy Pond.'

248

Coming soon from BBC Audiobooks:

by James Goss

When the TARDIS arrives in Smyrna in 1929, the Doctor

and Amy find themselves in the middle of an

archaeological dig. Soon a terrible chain of events is set in

motion, and the Doctor is confronted with an ancient evil...

by Stephen Cole

On Orkney in the near future, the construction of dozens of

new electricity pylons is met with local resistance. Just as

the Doctor and Amy arrive, the protestors are terrified to

see the pylons come to life and begin to walk...

Available on CD from www.bbcshop.com and all good

booksellers. Pre-order your copy now!

Also available to download from www.bbcaudiozone.com and

other audio digital retailers.

Available now from BBC Books:

by Justin Richards

£6.99 ISBN 978 1 846 07200 0

An astronaut in full spacesuit appears out of thin air in a

busy shopping centre. Maybe it's a publicity stunt.

A photo shows a well-dressed woman in a red coat lying

dead at the edge of a crater on the dark side of the moon,

beside her beloved dog Poochie'. Maybe it's a hoax.

But as the Doctor and Amy find out, these are just

minor events in a sinister plan to take over every human

being on Earth. The plot centres on a secret military base

on the moon - that's where Amy and the TARDIS are.

The Doctor is back on Earth, and without the TARDIS

there's no way he can get to the moon to save Amy and

defeat the aliens.

Or is there? The Doctor discovers one last great secret

that could save humanity: Apollo 23.

A thrilling, all-new adventure featuring the Doctor and Amy,

as played by Matt Smith and Karen Gillan in the spectacular hit

series from BBC Television.

Available now from BBC Books:

by David Llewellyn

£6.99 ISBN 978 1 846 07969 6

250,000 years' worth of junk floating in deep space, home

to the shipwrecked Sittuun, the carnivorous Sollogs, and

worst of all - the Humans.

The Doctor and Amy arrive on this terrifying world in the

middle of an all-out frontier war between Sittuun and

Humans, and the clock is already ticking. There's a comet

in the sky, and it's on a collision course with the Gyre...

When the Doctor is kidnapped, it's up to Amy and

'galaxy-famous swashbuckler' Dirk Slipstream to save the

day.

But who is Slipstream, exactly? And what is he really

doing here?

A thrilling, all-new adventure featuring the Doctor and Amy, as

played by Matt Smith and Karen Gillan in the spectacular hit

series from BBC Television.

Coming soon from BBC Books:

by Steve Tribe

£12.99 ISBN 978 1 846 07986 3

The inside scoop on 900 years of travel aboard the

Doctor's famous time machine.

Everything you need to know about the TARDIS is here

- where it came from, where it's been, how it works, and how

it has changed since we first encountered it in that East

London junkyard in 1963.

Including photographs, design drawings and concept

artwork from different eras of the series, this handbook

explores the ship's endless interior, looking inside its

wardrobe and bedrooms, its power rooms and sick bay,

its corridors and cloisters, and revealing just how the

show's production teams have created the dimensionally

transcendental police box, inside and out.

The TARDIS Handbook is the essential guide to the best

ship in the universe.

Coming soon from BBC Books:

by Gary Russell

£6.99 ISBN 978 1 846 07988 7

An archaeological dig in 1936 unearths relics of another

time... And - as the Doctor and Amy realise - another place.

Another planet. But if Enola Porter, noted adventuress, has

really found evidence of an alien civilisation, how come she

isn't famous? How come Amy's never heard of her? Come to

that, since she's been travelling with him for a while now,

how come Amy's never even heard of the Doctor?

As the ancient spaceship reactivates, the Doctor

discovers that nothing and no one can be trusted. The

things that seem most real could actually be illusion.

Obvious illusions could be real - and deadly.

Who can the Doctor trust when no one is what they

seem? And how can he defeat an enemy who can bend

reality itself to their will? For the Doctor and Amy -and all

of humanity - the buried secrets of the past are very much a

threat to the present...

A thrilling, all-new adventure featuring the Doctor and Amy,

as played by Matt Smith and Karen Gillan in the spectacular hit

series from BBC Television.

Coming soon from BBC Books:

by Oli Smith

£6.99 ISBN 978 1 846 07989 4

Colorado, 1981. The Doctor and Amy arrive in

Appletown - an idyllic village in the remote American

desert where the townsfolk go peacefully about their

suburban routines. But when two more strangers arrive,

things begin to change. The first is a mad scientist

-whose warnings are cut short by an untimely and brutal

death. The second is the Doctor...

As death falls from the sky, the Doctor is trapped. The

TARDIS is damaged, and the Doctor finds he is living

backwards through time. With Amy being hunted

through the suburban streets of the Doctor's own future and

getting farther away with every passing second, he must

unravel the secrets of Appletown before time runs out...

A thrilling, all-new adventure featuring the Doctor and Amy, as

played by Matt Smith and Karen Gillan in the spectacular hit

series from BBC Television.

Coming soon from BBC Books:

by Una McCormack

£6.99 ISBN 978 1 846 07990 0

In the city-state of Geath, the King lives in a golden hall,

and the people want for nothing. Everyone is happy and

everyone is rich. Or so it seems.

When the Doctor and Amy look beneath the surface, they

discover a city of secrets. In dark corners, strange creatures

are stirring. At the heart of the hall, a great metal dragon

oozes gold. Then the Herald appears, demanding the

return of her treasure - the 'glamour'... And next come the

gunships.

The battle for possession of the glamour has begun, and

only the Doctor and Amy can save the people of the city

from being destroyed in the crossfire of an ancient civil

war.

But will the King surrender his new-found wealth? Or

will he fight to keep it...?

A thrilling, all-new adventure featuring the Doctor and Amy, as

played by Matt Smith and Karen Gillan in the spectacular hit

series from BBC Television.

Coming soon from BBC Boofcs:

by Justin Richards and Mike Collins

£16.99 ISBN 978 1 846 07984 9

Station 7 is where the Earth Forces send all the equipment

captured in their unceasing war against the Daleks. It's

where Dalek technology is analysed and examined. It's

where the Doctor and Amy have just arrived. But somehow

the Daleks have found out about Station 7 - and there's

something there that they want back.

With the Doctor increasingly worried about the direction

the Station's research is taking, the commander of Station 7

knows he has only one possible, desperate, defence. Because

the last terrible secret of Station 7 is that they don't only store

captured Dalek technology. It's also a prison. And the only

thing that might stop a Dalek is another Dalek...

An epic, full-colour graphic novel featuring the Doctor and Amy, as

played by Matt Smith and Karen Gillan in the spectacular hit series

from BBC Television.